Barrington High students work to even things up with Mother Nature

Even in a pandemic year, schools use a lot of paper.

A group of Barrington High School National Honor Society worked to even things up Saturday by planting dozens of trees on campus and at the homes of residents around town.

The effort, held in partnership with the nonprofit Tree-Plenish, began long before Saturday, when students worked to calculate how much paper the school uses in a year and determine the number of trees it takes to produce that paper.

Students then marketed the event to the local community and got residents to order trees for their properties.

In all culminated Saturday, with volunteer teams of students playing saplings around the community.

"The idea was to replenish what we have taken away from the environment," said National Honor Society sponsor Laura Turngren.

Nearly 300 were planted by NHS members, including 10 on school grounds, Turngren said. Another 150 saplings were picked up by community members.