By Mayan Lara

Photographer

On March 23, eager volunteers visited Bakersfield College ready to help finish the green makeover, which started several months ago in November 2012.

As part of an ongoing celebration of BC’s 100th year, 100 trees were planted around BC’s campus. Half of those trees were previously planted last semester while all the rest, but one, were planted this semester.

The volunteers who generously donated their time to planting these trees varied from BC students and employees to non-BC-related volunteers such as TransWest Security employees.

The volunteers were split into groups of five to speed up the planting process. Among the volunteers was BC president, Sonya Christian; chair of the agriculture department, Lindsay Ono; and executive director at Tree Foundation of Kern ,Melissa Iger.

BC students Paula O’Neal and Barbra Armas not only volunteered because they enjoy helping out the community, but are also majoring in horticulture, landscaping, and plant idenification.

Brooke Antonioni, with TransWest, said it is “a company commitment to plant trees every year in the city and the county,” so they were delighted to help out when Iger called them up.

TransWest will plant 40 trees in the city and 40 trees in the county. They work with the Tree Foundation of Kern County and the County Parks and Recreation departments to identify where the needs are and also what kind of trees should be planted there.

Antonioni felt like it was a great opportunity to help plant trees and teach life lessons to the many children that came along for the experience.

In total, TransWest brought along around 40 volunteers. These volunteers were not only employees, but also family members and customers. Their ages ranged from 6 months old and up.  Ono plans to save the 100th tree, an Oak tree, for the Garden Fest scheduled at BC on April 20.