Two weeks ago, the 6th grade at Durham Academy went to Hillside Park to plant trees with Keep Durham Beautiful. We learned how to plant a tree and about Hillside Park’s history. Here’s some of it. Hillside Park’s land was donated to the city by a man named John Sprunt Hill. That is where Hillside Park High School was built in 1922. Hillside Park High School was the first school in Durham to accept black students.

Now, back to the tree planting. Keep Durham Beautiful showed us how to plant a tree and make a home for it. There were spots for trees all around the park. We got into groups of 3 and picked a tree. It was SO fun, but we had to plant in the hard rain. At the end, we got to name our tree. Our tree’s name was Bob The Builder Who Builds Dinosaur Trains or Cartin (Chris + Martin) for short. We named our tree after kids’ TV shows like Bob the Builder, Dinosaur Train, and The Wild Kratts. That’s where we got Chris and Martin. This was an amazing experience. I hope to see Cartin again!