As part of a collaboration between the French-American School of Rhode Island Parents’ Association, the Providence City Parks Department and Trees 2020, students and volunteers recently planted trees in the Carolyn Brassil Memorial Park. The parents’ association raised funds to cover the cost of the replacement trees and their care, which will be provided by the subsidized city program, Trees 2020.
Doug Still, city forester, Beth Charlebois, director of Neighborhood Park Services, and Ray Perreault, director of Trees 2020, facilitated the project. Amy Leidtke, a volunteer through the Parents’ Association Community Outreach, and Jean-François Lopez, FASRI education coordinator, coordinated the project from within the school along with FASRI parents Isolde Maher and Barbara Owens.
Children from FASRI use the playground, which is located at Brook and Arnold streets in the Fox Point neighborhood. The two shade trees were planted by the eighth-graders and volunteers to replace old trees that had been stricken with disease and removed by the Parks Department. Volunteers also cleaned up the park, raked leaves and re-painted the benches. •
