Student plans fundraising hike

For Olivia French ’14, environmental conservation has been a lifelong passion. This interest began when an enthusiastic science teacher introduced the topic of greenhouse gases to her middle-school class. Once educated about the importance of conservation, it stuck with her.

In her second year of high school, French decided to raise awareness of environmental issues by researching mountaintop removal, a type of mining most often done in the Appalachian Mountains where coal seams are removed from the summit of a mountain. She then traveled to West Virginia to photograph the mines and created a photojournalism exhibit that hung at her high school, Loomis Chaffee, and at Brown University. She called it, “Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining: A Legacy of Human Suffering and Environmental Devastation.”

Gradually, though, French honed on one issue of special importance to her: rainforest conservation.

“I became interested in rainforest conservation after realizing that so much of our western lifestyle depends on the health of our rainforests,” French wrote in an email.

After realizing that hundreds of fruits, vegetables, ingredients for prescription drugs and species of wildlife exist in rainforests and that rainforests are of utmost importance in the reduction of greenhouse gas, French decided to start a new project aimed at the issue.

This most recent project was to found an organization called “Hike a Trail — Save a Forest” last March with her brother Wyatt, now a sophomore at Loomis Chaffee. The Frenches worked with a website designer to create a webpage for their group and contacted outing clubs and environmental groups from area colleges and high schools to garner support for the fledgling organization.

On April 17, Hike a Trail — Save a Forest will launch its first fundraising event for the Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees Program: a hike of Snake Mountain in which each participant donates $10. French hopes that the fact that the mountain is close to campus and easy to hike will make it an attractive venue for potential participants.

“I know everyone has busy schedules,” French said, “so I wanted to make sure the hike wasn’t an all day event, but more of a break in the day to get fresh air and celebrate nature.”

It’s French’s first “big-scale event,” and the organization hopes to raise $6,000, of which $1,070 has already been raised through other fundraising efforts.

French finds the recipient of these donations, the Plant a Billion Trees Program, an especially worthy one. The organization appeared to be “dedicated to making a significant, tangible difference in our environment” through working to plant a billion trees and restore one million acres of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil by 2015.

The project is especially pressing given the fact that only seven percent of the Atlantic Forest remains. The program hopes that the fact that one hectare of a rainforest like the Atlantic Forest can absorb approximately six tons of carbon dioxide every year will provide dramatic environmental benefits, and the program specifically aims to help expel four million tons of carbon dioxide from the earth’s atmosphere every year. Each dollar raised by the organization goes towards one tree planted.

“When I donate to the Plant a Billion Trees program, I know exactly where my money is going,” French said. “Plus, I’ll be able to see powerful, lasting changes because of the program … I think that’s so cool.”

Middlebury students are not the only ones participating in the event — students from 17 others schools plan to hike trails near their own campuses, including students from Williams, Yale, The University of Ohio, Wake Forest, Bentley and Elon. Even if schools have events planned for the April 17, the students also plan to raise donations for the Plant a Billion Trees Program.

French has high hopes for the organization’s future. She aims to increase the success of fundraising efforts in the future through continued donations from supporters who do not necessarily attend the hiking event.

“This is our first year of Hike a Trail-Save a Forest, so we’re still figuring out how to best to gather support and raise awareness,” said French, “but we hope that next year Hike a Trail — Save a Forest will continue to grow and that even more schools will join us.”

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To hike with Midd students on April 17 or donate to the Plant a Billion Trees Program, contact Olivia French at ofrench@middlebury.edu or visit:
hikeatrailsaveaforest.org!

And if you can’t make the hike but would like to make a donation, or just want to learn more about Hike a Trail — Save a Forest, visit the siblings’ website.

To learn more about the Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Project, visit www.plantabillion.org.