Wes 5th grade adopts Lil Blue

Sitting atop the knoll in front of Wamsley Elementary school, proudly stands a newly planted short and stout blue spruce.

Lil’ Blue, as it has come to be called by the students, came to Wamsley earlier this year as a donation - a great gift representing the lives of educators past, and a testament to the impact that teachers make on students, colleagues and community every day.

“We call him Lil’ Blue because he's a blue spruce, and he's small,” explained Wamsley fifth-grader Cori Prunty.

Launa Buchanan and Neal George spent the bulk of their teaching careers at Wamsley Elementary. With the recent passing of Mrs. George, a collection was taken to purchase trees to honor the women- mothers, friends, colleagues and teachers. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Launa Buchanan                  Neal George

Launa’s husband Jay said there was really only one place he considered planting the tree.

“Launa spent most of her teaching career at Wamsley, so what better place to plant a tree than at the school she loved?” said Jay. 

A bench honoring the two long-time educators sits near the tree that the Wamsley fifth-grade has adopted.

Caleb Alcerro feels a special connection with Lil’ Blue.

“I normally go out there to get picked up by my parents. And when I see that tree, I just feel like it's another big part of the school because we're honoring somebody. And I didn't even know them, but I just feel like we should honor them because they devoted their lives for 30 years to kids.”

Kennidy Gonzalez said that she likes Lil’ Blue because of the lasting legacy it creates.

“I think that Little Blue was planted so that more kids would know about how they affected many lives, and so they would know that they were probably really good at their jobs.”

Cori added that Lil’ Blue will help future generations at Wamsley Elementary remember.

“We wanted to give the tree a name in memory of them so that we wouldn't forget, and we would know what to call it (the tree). And when we tell people about it, we wouldn't be saying, "Oh, we planted this blue spruce tree,” we can say “Here is Lil’ Blue and it's in honor of our lost teachers."

Additional funds were donated to Wamsley Elementary in Mrs. George’s name to support reading.