St Aloysius College tree-planting project produces 7,000 trees

Minister for Rural Affairs George Pullicino recently visited St Aloysius College in Birkirkara to meet the students participating in the BoV tree-planting project.

The minister also met coordinator Michel Spiteri, Fr Patrick Magro, the college rector and Michael Borg Costanzi, chief officer, Bank of Valletta.

The project, now in its seventh year, is a collaboration between BoV, St Aloysius College and the Ministry of Resources and Rural Affairs.

A group of around 60 college students are involved in the process of growing trees, making their own compost, collecting and sowing seeds, watering the saplings and transplanting them into larger pots once these start growing. These trees are then passed on to the ministry to be used in various embellishment works around Malta.

Mr Spiteri said the college was proud to note that some students who have now left the college still check on the progress of the trees and visit the sites where the saplings they helped grow were planted.

Mr Borg Costanzi said the project combined education with environmental awareness – two main pillars of the bank’s community programme.

The students then briefed the minister on the practical and theoretical aspects of the project and illustrated samples of the saplings which will eventually become fully-grown trees.