This NPR coverage of Fruit Tree Tour at a Southern California school (Nuview Elementary with sponsor Nutrilite), really captures the magical energy of the day program.
GIVING OPTIONS: For $25 you can dedicate a fruit tree planting at a school in someone's honor. Also the Fruit Tree Tour Mile-A-Thon fundraiser enables you to give on many different levels. You can sponsor as many of the 3,000 miles we travel each year for only $1 a mile. The tour is definitely feeling the financial problems of the world so anything helps. Donations can be given through our PayPal account or sent by check. If you are inspired to participate in our Mile-A-Thon, please use the PayPal button below to sponsor me on this trip for only $1 a mile!
I am grateful for the honor of growing with a group that shares a similar objective: sowing seeds of hope and the impulse to assume our collective responsibility to restore earth's balance.
We are a living learning community formed by a fleet of three buses running on vegetable oil. We are 24 volunteers from diverse cultural backgrounds come together to make a better future through substantial projects.
The talent of each member is exposed in our eco-theater performance, where the people of the past and future, and nature messengers like the bird and the bear, integrate a inspirational sequence that empowers children to realize how valuable each members work is in the present for construction of healthy communities.
In the drum group we have drums made with reused materials like barrels, and buckets (bass drums), tin cans, pot tins and sticks (bells), water bottles and tin cans, round and smashed with seeds inside (shakers), complementing with the djembe drums.
Each child rotates, in order to play all of the instruments, and to bring that experience back home, making their own tools to explore rhythm. The heart beat is one of the main rhythms which the whole group gets involved in, and then we do a mini orchestra, were we play hip hop and other joyful rhythms, that are near to daily life.
The expression session group lets the children explore their own potential to speak up on how they see, and want to see, the world. This holds a space for envisioning the power of each ones truth.
Our physical seed is the tree planting, a way the children keep connected with Common Vision's inspiration, through the stewardship of the growth of the fruit tree they have planted together with the crew members, an empowering action that makes us conscious and grounded on how we can all grow food forests, so necessary in this times of global food crisis.
Complementary to this, is all of the sites that we have been camping in, from a 600 year old tree garden, and the old oaks, to the ocean, the birds, the wind in the trees, and all of nature's messengers blessing us with their greetings.
My home is now the Jah Lioness, the medicine bus, with the turtle conch protecting on the back, teaching us how the natural cycles and boundaries of the earth, are already being restored, if we learn to be present and useful.
We have the support and abundance, like the farmer's markets donations so we have enough to eat, and keep on rollin, but for now we still have other expenses, which have to be covered, and we don't have the economical resources to do it, so this is an open request for all of those who feel connected to this work, and that want to support, this is the exact moment we need you to be part of this effort. Use the Pledge button below to help make it possible.
I returned to our camp site after a busy day of green theatre, planting trees, taking photos, and riding in the utility truck to be on call in case any vehicles had trouble. I then got word that a newspaper reporter urgently needed photos of the school day for an article. I got on the computer and uploaded the photos as quick as I could, chose some good ones and sent them out. The next day the article was printed in the Orange County Register with my photos included. . . read the article here. . . . Fruit tree planters roll into OC — in veggie-powered buses
Thank you for taking a moment to visit my Fruit Tree Tour Mile-A-Thon page and considering to pledge your support for our tour. For the last four years, I have the amazing opportunity to join over 20 other volunteers for Common Vision’s annual Fruit Tree Tour! For 10-weeks, we travel in the world’s largest vegetable-oil powered caravan to bring our day-long program of tree planting, drumming, and creative expression to schools throughout California. Click on the video to the right to view a short clip from the Emmy Award winning documentary about Fruit Tree Tour.
One of the most amazing aspects of Common Vision is that the entire organization is run BY VOLUNTEERS! In order to continue providing scholarships to underserved schools, keeping our veggie-oil powered fleet (3 buses, 1 refrigerator truck, 1 fuel truck, 1 soil pick-up, 1 Mercedes wagon) on the road, and keeping the volunteers fed, we rely on donations from people LIKE YOU. Over 70% of our operating budget comes from individual donations! Whether a donation is large or small, every penny helps to keep our tour rolling!
Fruit Tree Tour has been the most inspiring project I've ever been a part of. I love having the opportunity every day to convert barren schoolyards to urban/suburban orchards. Getting the students out of the classroom to get their hands in the soil while learning about our connection to the food we eat and the earth we live on is an experience the students won't soon forget!
To support Fruit Tree Tour, I encourage you to use the PayPal button below to sponsor me for $1 a mile on our 3,000 mile journey. Even if you can only pledge $5, your donation is incredibly appreciated. Whatever your donation may be, thank you for putting your money towards the health of our planet and of future generations! For more info, visit www.commonvision.org and check us out on Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube!
I've been Making Movies! Taking the footage is pretty fun but then comes the many hours of slaving over a hot computer. Its well worth the work though to be able to tell the amazing stories that happen day after day on Fruit Tree Tour. Check out my latest film on youtube.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNwIki01-r0
Hanging out on the Bus after a long day of planting Fruit Trees east of LA at Nu View Elementary.
Here's a nice sunset photo of turning soil at a community planting in Malibu.
At the campus shared by Mariposa Charter and Sumac Elementary just north of LA I was able to plant two Anna Apple trees with two groups of kids. The Anna Apple does well in the warmer climates of Southern California. I haven't tasted the apples yet but I'm looking forward to it. . .
Here I am enjoying the newly remodeled interior of the Jah Lioness bus. My friend Colton refinished the bus before tour taking out the old bunks and making it more spacious by installing new hanging bunks. Also new is the Moon Gate key hole doorway. While all this remodeling was going on inside the bus I was remodeling the Vegetable oil fuel system, taking out the old tanks that had sprung a leak and installing new better designed tanks.
Here I am at our first planting in San Ramon at the MA Center. We planted 185 trees that day, and broke our record for the most fruit trees we have ever planted in one day, all on our very first day of tour! We're off to a good start!
