Both are kind of small. Both need food and water to grow big and strong. And both need a strong support system to thrive.

This was the lesson Fort Dodge Community School District Superintendent Jesse Ulrich taught the district’s kindergarteners this week. On Tuesday and Thursday, kindergarten classes from Butler, Cooper, Duncombe and Feelhaver elementary schools traveled to Fort Dodge Middle School to plant the kindergarten class tree. Like many of the students, the young tree is just 6 years old.

“When you plant a tree into the ground, what does it need to grow?” Ulrich asked the kindergarteners before placing the tree in a freshly-dug hole in the ground.

The students replied back confidently that the tree will need water and food from the soil it is planted in.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
FDCSD Superintendent Jesse Ulrich introduces his tree-planting helpers before the Butler Elementary School kindergarteners plant their class tree at Fort Dodge Middle School on Thursday morning. From right to left are: Ruby Lindner, Kyler Steding, Ulrich, Yessika Ceplecha, Elias Jones, Ava Orth and Branden Seals.

“The other thing that young trees need when you put them in the ground is their support system, so when they’re young, they don’t blow over,” Ulrich told them, pointing out the stakes and wires surrounding other young trees that have been planted in recent years.

He told the students that just like a young sapling, they too need a support system to help keep them upright when they’re struggling.

“I’m going to be hoping and praying that you grow big and strong, that you have all the support systems in place and our promise to you is we’re going to take good care of you while you’re a Dodger,” Ulrich said.

He encouraged the students to come back to their class tree in 12 years when they’re graduating from Fort Dodge Senior High.

“It truly is one of those traditions that is all about the analogy of showing the growth of our students and the growth of a tree,” Ulrich said. “Every year, we have groups of seniors who go and find their tree and it’s a special moment for them to be able to see the tree that they helped plant.”

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Kindergarteners from Butler Elementary School sit near their tree that they planted at Fort Dodge Middle School on Thursday morning.

The kindergarten class tree planting has been a long-standing tradition at the Fort Dodge school district dating back to at least the early 1980s.

Due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic ending the school year early in spring of 2020, the district’s first graders also got to plant their own class tree this week.

“It’s a neat experience, both for the kids but it’s also one of my favorite days as a superintendent because I know how much it means to them,” Ulrich said.