LINC is joining Neighborhood Forest’s Earth Day celebration, signing up families now through March 15 to get free trees for planting in April.

LINC is reaching out to children and families through all its Caring Communities sites and to the children of neighbors and partners to join in the annual tree planting experience that Neighborhood Forest hopes to bring to more than 100,000 children for Earth Day this year.

LINC will be providing STE(A)M education and programs to teach children about the environment and conservation. And LINC will hold a community event on the day after Earth Day April 23.

To sign children up to receive trees, parents and guardians should reach out to their neighborhood school’s LINC Caring Communities Coordinator, by visiting the school or contacting the coordinator. A link to LINC contact information by school district locations is available here or by emailing communications@kclinc.org.

LINC’s community Earth Day event will be at Morning Star Youth and Family Life Center, April 23, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and families and community partners can sign their children up to receive trees at that event by going to a special registration page here.

The deadline for registration is March 15.

LINC is excited to join Neighborhood Forest’s tree planting campaign, said LINC STE(A)M Coordinator Brett Campbell, because of the many opportunities to engage children and their families earth-friendly science.

STE(A)M stands for science, technology, engineering, math and the arts. LINC’s lessons around the tree project will include many topics, such as the health of the environment and how trees help ease the carbon impact of cities, affecting the quality of air, helping children breathe better and be healthier. They will learn the biology of trees and ecosystems.

Just as importantly, Campbell said, children will learn to “take ownership of their (earth) home.”

Neighborhood Forest, based in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, began in 2010 as a mission by Vikas and Priay Narula and college friends to carry on the ideal of other inspirational efforts “to give every child the priceless joy of planting and watching trees grow.”

The program works with schools, libraries and youth groups to enroll children. And as thousands of trees have been planted, the growing effort has beautified neighborhoods, lessened cities’ carbon footprint and filled “the hearts of little ones a sense of magic, wonder and love for our planet.”

More than 67,000 children received trees for Earth Day 2024, and Neighborhood Forest is aiming to exceed 100,000 children in 2025.

LINC is one of more than 2,000 youth organizations in the U.S. and Canada now involved in Neighborhood Forest.