<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=4gZkV2_1GntJh1k00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4gZkV2_1GntJh1k00" width="1219" height="866" ><figcaption>(Press Staff Photo by Juno Ogle) Students at Harrison Schmitt Elementary School place handfuls of mulch around the school’s moon tree after it was planted Wednesday. The Douglas fir was grown from a seed that orbited the moon in the 2022 Artemis I mission.</figcaption></figure>Daily Press StaffIt may look like just a small fir tree, but the latest addition to the grounds of Harrison Schmitt Elementary School followed the path of the school’s namesake and, speakers said, symbolizes the promise that students can achieve their dreams, too.On Monday, the school had a ceremony in the gym to welcome its “moon tree,” a Douglas fir. The plans had been to plant the tree that day, but cold, windy weather pushed the planting to Wednesday afternoon.Wednesday, the students gathered again outside the school, where staff had dug a hole for the tree. The leaders of the school’s four “houses,” Serenity Carrillo, Weston Duncan, Joshlynn Galindo and Ezmia Jimenez, had the honor of placing the tree in the hole and shoveling dirt around its roots.Then, one by one, the students lined up to take a handful of mulch from a wheelbarrow and place it around the tree.“I thought it would be a good way to include everyone,” Assistant Principal Louis Alvarez said.But before all that, the students learned what name the tree would have. Students had suggested and voted on names, and Alvarez said there were good ones, like Luna and Harry. But one name was a clear winner.“Say hello to Buzz Lightyear!” Alvarez said, and the students screamed and chanted the name.At Monday’s ceremony, the speakers’ theme was growth, and how, just like the tree, the students can grow to do great things.“When you look at this little tree, you might see the branches, you might see the needles and the trunk, but this tree has been on a journey that none of us in this room have been on,” Principal Heather Holguin said.Three students helped tell the tree’s story during the ceremony.“Its story began long before it arrived at our school,” Remington Delgado said. “In 2022, its seed traveled aboard NASA’s Artemis spacecraft.”The seed was one of hundreds carried on the Artemis I mission as part of a STEM education initiative between NASA and the U.S. Forest Service. The unmanned Orion spacecraft spent about four weeks traveling to orbit the moon and return to Earth.“Now, its next adventure begins right here at Harrison Schmitt Elementary with us,” Remington said.Student Wally Davies said with the right care, the tree will grow — and the students have similar needs.“We need people who believe in us, opportunities to learn and courage to try something new,” he said. “A tiny seed became a tree with an amazing story. Our small steps can lead to amazing things, too.”Serenity Carrillo said the students are now part of the tree’s story, which is a promise to the future.“We can help protect it, care for the space around it and teach others why it matters,” she said. “Let this tree remind us to stay curious, take care of the Earth and encourage one another. We may not know all the places our future will take us, but we can start here with strong roots, big dreams and courage to grow.”Harley Allsup of the Gila National Forest carried on that theme with his remarks, talking about Schmitt’s path to the moon.A native of Santa Rita — making him the only astronaut “born in space” — Schmitt went to college to become a geologist. He joined NASA in 1965, and became the first scientist to walk on the moon in the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.“I want you to think about something,” Allsup said to the kids. “He didn’t grow up next to a space shuttle. He didn’t grow up in some big city. He grew up right here, where you’re at.“Where you begin doesn’t determine how far you can go,” he continued.The things the students are good at or are curious about are seeds, Allsup said, and he encouraged them to nurture those seeds.He also told the students about the first moon trees that came from the Apollo 14 mission in 1971. Before becoming an astronaut, Stuart Roosa had worked for the U.S. Forest Service as a smokejumper. He took with him hundreds of tree seeds on his mission, and after returning to Earth, many of them were planted in communities around the world, becoming the first moon trees.One of those trees, a sycamore, stands today in Silver City’s Gough Park.The school’s moon tree makes Silver City one of just a handful of cities in the U.S. that have moon trees from both the Apollo and Artemis missions, according to NASA’s moon trees website. The other towns are Troy, Alabama; Tucson, Arizona; Tallahassee, Florida; Eugene, Oregon; and Olympia, Washington. Juno Ogle may be reached at juno@scdai lypress.com.</div></body>

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It may look like just a small fir tree, but the latest addition to the grounds of Harrison Schmitt Elementary School followed the path of the school’s namesake and, speakers said, symbolizes the promise that students can achieve their dreams, too. On Monday, the school had a ceremony in...

School plants town’s second Moon tree

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It may look like just a small fir tree, but the latest addition to the grounds of Harrison Schmitt Elementary School followed the path of the school’s name

School plants town’s second Moon tree

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