In cooperation with District 10 Environment Committee, the Como Woodland Advisory Committee is seeking donations to hire a professional poet to conduct a total of six one-hour poetry workshops for students of two local elementary schools close to the Como Woodland Outdoor Classroom (CWOC) project site. The purpose of Poet-tree Workshops is to introduce local schools to the CWOC; help participating students bond to the natural world and the local Como community; and provide connections between art, community, history, and environmental sciences.

The Joyce Kilmer Memorial Fireplace (aka “Dutch Ovens”) – scheduled for restoration this summer – is located in the heart of the CWOC site. Joyce Kilmer was a WW1 hero and the American poet who wrote the well-known poem: Trees (“I think that I shall never see, a poem as lovely as a tree . . .”). So we thought it fitting that Trees would be the source of inspiration for the Poet-tree Workshops.

A rededication booklet containing the students’ poems as well as local community memories of the fireplace and surrounding woodland; background history of Joyce Kilmer and Lamont Kaufman (memorial’s designer); and the benefits of trees, will be published May 2011 for the Joyce Kilmer Memorial’s 75th anniversary.

Donations via check:

District 10 Community Council – Environment Committee
write “Poet-tree” in the memo

mail to:

District 10 Community Council
Environment Committee, Poet-tree
1224 Lexington Pkwy N.
St. Paul, MN 55103.
 

Online Donations:

If you would like to donate online, go to District 10 Community Council’s GiveMN account, place a check mark next to "Add a designation," and write 'Poet-tree' in the box below it:

Thank You!

-- by Deb Robinson, posted by Matt Schmitt, Panod K, updated by JW