Following a Fort Dodge Community School District tradition, many of the 259 kindergarteners helped to plant a tree on district property Tuesday morning. The 2023-2024 kindergarten class tree is on the south side of the middle school, 800 N. 32nd Street.

District Superintendent Josh Porter led the tree-planting effort.

“We’re going to be tree heroes today,” he told the young students sitting on the grass around a sapling laying on its side.

He told the students that, like the tree, they will get older, bigger, and stronger.

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea
Kindergarteners from the Early Childhood Center gather around a tree that they helped to plant Tuesday morning on the grounds of the Fort Dodge Middle School.

He also reminded them that trees produce the oxygen that people breathe

“We’re going to plant this baby tree so we can give our friends more oxygen to breathe,” he said..

“Always find ways to give back like the tree gives oxygen,” Porter told the students.

Then he picked the sapling up and eased it into a hole in the ground. Several kindergarteners, using shovels almost as big as themselves, scooped dirt into the hole. Later in the day, the district’s custodial and maintenance staff finished the job, ensuring that the 2023-2024 kindergarten tree was properly anchored in the soil.

With their part of the work done, the students enjoyed a snack of cookies and juice boxes before getting back on the buses for the return trip to the Early Childhood Center.

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea
Josh Porter, superintendent of the Fort Dodge Community School District, lowers a tree into the ground as kindergarteners line up for their chance to shovel some dirt onto it. The tree was planted at Fort Dodge Middle School.