Northeast News

April 22, 2016

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – The Pendleton Heights Neighborhood Orchard just got a lot more populated.

The Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences is celebrating its 100th year in 2016, and university officials are commemorating the milestone by planting 100 trees on campus and in the surrounding neighborhoods throughout the year. The initiative kicked off on the morning of Friday, April 22, as KCU partnered with Pendleton Heights residents and the Giving Grove to plant more than two dozen trees in the homes association’s neighborhood orchard.

“(KCU) is doing their 100-year centennial, and they wanted to give 100 trees to the neighborhood,” said Pendleton Heights  co-Green Coordinator Whitney Barnardo. “Obviously the orchard was a big kickoff.”

The orchard, located at 2617 Lexington (on the corner of Lexington Ave. and Montgall St.), drew a large crowd of volunteers to help plant paw paw, jujube, pear, apple, and bush cherry trees in honor of Earth Day. After the planting event, Pendleton Heights’ fellow co-Green coordinator Dianna Sinni discussed the importance of the event to the community.

“We’re at the garden almost every Saturday, and three days a week during the season,” said Sinni. “It’s always nice when we have more hands to get stuff done, especially with big projects. This would have taken four of us probably like two weeks, so this is awesome.”

Check out photos from the tree planting event below: