Since 2004, students in the Urban Forestry program at Northlands Job Corps Academy have worked with St. Peter’s church in Vergennes, Vermont to maintain their church and cemetery grounds.

“I can’t say enough good things about them,” says Rey Godard, committee member for the cemetery association. “The students do a real first-rate job.”

From mid-April to late October, students participate in a work-based learning arrangement with the cemetery, mowing the lawns, trimming hedges and cutting back trees. The students are insured by Northlands, and the cost to the church is a small fraction of what they would otherwise be paying.

“It’s a big, big, big, big savings,” Rey says. “It would easily cost us seven to ten-thousand dollars more a year if not for these students.”

Plus, students occasionally work on trees on the church grounds as a donation and show of goodwill to the community. “They trim the trees and clean up like they were never there,” Rey says. “It’s a real professional job. Their instructors sure are showing them how to do things right.”

Urban Forestry is the management and care of tree populations in an urban setting. The students’ work at St. Peter’s church and cemetery is just one of many volunteer and work-based learning initiatives throughout the community.