Youth compete for spot on KIB's 2011 Youth Tree Team

INDIANAPOLIS, March 2, 2011 – Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc. (KIB) will hold Youth Tree Team (YTT) tryouts this Saturday, March 5, at its Fountain Square headquarters located at 1029 East Fletcher Ave. More than 350 Indy youth have registered to attend and compete for 40 spots on the 2011 Youth Tree Team. Participants will take part in obstacle test to assess their willingness to work hard and get their hands dirty.

YTT is a 10-week summer program that employs Indianapolis high school students and young adults to preserve and maintain trees planted through KIB’s NeighborWoods program. The team spends about 20 hours per week watering, mulching, pruning, and staking trees throughout Indianapolis, as well as maintaining greenspaces downtown.

• 350 high school students have applied for the Youth Tree Team program and registered for the Challenge Day at the KIB headquarters on Saturday, March 5. (Registration for the 2011 program has already closed)
• Youth are competing for 40 spots.
• Try-outs are 10am to 12pm and 1pm to 3pm.

“The Youth Tree Team is a program that speaks to the work KIB does all over the city, its growth over the last few years, and its impact on the beauty of the city can be seen all year round,” says David Forsell, president of KIB. “Youth Tree Team allows us to continue to improve the tree canopy in Indianapolis, and keeps us on track for our NeighborWoods goal of planting 100,000 trees in Marion County by 2017. As an organization we have gone from planting 600 trees a year to more than 600 trees a month, all with the help of the Youth Tree Team.”

YTT members are paid an hourly rate and receive a free lunch each workday. Additionally, a variety of planned enrichment activities are scheduled throughout the summer to help members gain valuable life skills that range from leadership experience and team building, to job training and environmental knowledge. Last year’s activities included college campus visits, financial planning and management skills education, panel discussions with green-collar professionals, and outdoor experiences, such as rafting on the White River.

The application process for the program includes a formal online submission, participation in the Challenge Day on March 5, a volunteer project in early April, and an in-person interview in May. More information on the Youth Tree Team can be found online at www.kibi.org/youth_tree_team.

About Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc.
Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc. is a private, nonprofit organization uniting people to build community and transform public spaces through aesthetic and environmental improvement. In 2010, KIB engaged nearly 40,000 volunteers on 500 community improvement projects. To learn more, please visit www.kibi.org.
 

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