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Kay DeCuir, former Nederland Rotary Club president, and Candace Hemelt, public Image co-chair, helped the service organization obtain a Port Arthur LNG Environmental Champions grant.

DeCuir wrote the grant application, and when the new Rotary year began in July, service projects leader Horace Brown and incoming President Heather Lange met several times to figure out how best to execute the grant.

Tree plantings for local schools was selected for a service project.

They coordinated with Bill Jardell and Kenny Litvik of Nederland Independent School District to determine locations on campuses for the trees.

Emphasis was put on trees that didn’t attract bees and brought a golden color to the schools. The Golden Raintree was chosen, and it is known to help with pollutants in the air.

Rotarians, Nederland Interact Club, Nederland National Honor Society and Nederland ISD staff met Saturday and planted 12 trees.

Cureton & Son donated an auger to use, Nederland Fire Department watered the trees and Racks Unlimited made the dedication plaques.

Organizers hope these trees bring vibrant color to the campuses and are enjoyed by the community for many years.

Lange commended the group for being “super excited” throughout the process.

“They renovated the schools and a lot of the landscape changed,” she said. “We wanted to make sure through our LNG Environmental grant that we gave back to the local school district. We are extremely grateful. We wouldn’t be able to do things like this without this (grant) opportunity.”

Lange said seeing so many in the community come together for something that can benefit many generations is the best part.