Khloe Owen, Stevi Valenzuela, Adie Waltner, and Allie Grifalconi Mandel
NORTH FORK — Four students at North Fork School are doing their part to restore some of the many trees lost over the past few years.
Because of the massive death of our pines due to the drought and bark beetles, the Fantabulous 4 Diva Dibblers have planted Ponderosa Pine seedlings in the yards of those who requested trees. They have been educated by professionals on how to plant, so the trees have the most likely chance of survival.
The seedlings, 98 in all, were donated to the group by Intermountain Nursery, located on Auberry Road in Prather.
A Dibble is “a pointed hand tool for making holes in the ground for seeds or young plants,” the team explains. The pointed end sticks into the ground to make a hole for the seedling that is the same shape as the cylinder in which the tree grows until it is planted.
Katie Bethune and baby Rose watch as the Diva Dibblers plant seedling
“We are a group called Destination Imagination [www.destinationimagination.org],” say the girls. “This organization promotes activities for children around our ages which furthers our education by pushing us to accomplish tasks as a team. Our team is centered at North Fork School. This year we have taken on the Ready, Willing & Fable challenge.
“There are four of us involved. Our names are Allie Grifalconi Mandel, Adie Waltner, Stevi Valenzuela and Khloe Owen. Our Service Learning Challenge is designed to engage students in public service to address real-life community issues.”
Points of Interest for the Challenge include identifying designing, planning and carry out a project that addresses a real community need; and creating a live presentation of a team-created fable that integrates information about the project.
The Diva Dibblers chose North Fork as their community, and “The Dead Tree Situation” as one important need in the North Fork area.
The team has their first Destination Imagination competition of this year — the Regional Tournament — coming up on Saturday, Feb. 25, at Liberty High School in Madera Ranchos.
Khloe is in 5th grade, and the rest of the girls are in the 6th grade. The teachers mentoring the project are Ms. Otterson and Mrs. Cottongton.
