Making Our Mark Through a Tree

Aug 08, 2022   |   Kisha San Juan

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Participants from UBS and Heartware Network all raring to get their hands dirty by planting trees.

On 16 July 2022, over 50 volunteers from Heartware Network and UBS gathered at St. Wilfred state land for a tree planting event to invest in a clean and green future.

This event was part of the first day of the “22 Days of Doing Good” nationwide initiative supporting the Singapore Cares (SG Cares) Movement to champion the SG Cares Spirit of doing good in the community. Heartware Network partnered with National Day Parade 2022 and President’s Challenge to organise the tree planting event, where they planted 100 tree saplings.

Upon arriving at the venue, the volunteers were split into smaller groups and briefed by NParks’ officials how to plant tree saplings using digging and entrenchment tools. One of the officials, proceeded to educate the volunteers about the manner trees contributed to the environment and helped in the integration of city and nature.

Mr Bryan Tan, 33, a corporate volunteer who works UBS, expressed that after participating in the event, he now understood that planting more trees helps us in our efforts to improve air quality. While he felt exhausted after the tree planting exercise, he was convinced that it was worthwhile and meaningful.

 

A representative from UBS and another from Heartware Network proudly standing by the tree they just planted together.

Ms. Koh Meng Guek, 21, a volunteer from Heartware Network since 2019, planted her tree with two other volunteers. She expressed, “I learned it would be more effective if that we can work together, because each of us can take up different roles – one of us can dig deeper into the ground, and the other can dig wider.”

 

Koh Meng Guek, 21, with Chan Cheng Yun, 18, and Ting Mei Yi, Jaime, 17, standing together with their completed trees where the roots and soil of the plant had been placed firmly in the grassland.

Meng Guek said that since the volunteers were planting the trees on St. Wilfred state land, which is situated near Housing Development Board residential flats and also Bendemeer Secondary School, it would definitely benefit our future generations as the area could be developed into a recreational park in future. She added, “we could make use of the park to show our future children the trees that have been planted by us today”.

She shared her vision for a greener Singapore by increasing our tree planting efforts, saying, but noted that these efforts had to be paired with other conservation initiatives such as opting for public over private transport to “reduce our carbon footprint”.