RI District 3131 kicked off the new Rotary Year in style by organizing a Mega Tree Plantation on the 1st of July, in coordination with the Maharashtra Forest Department. We at RCPC were allocated a site at Charoli near Alandi and given a challenging target of planting 5000 saplings. With the ‗can do‘ attitude that RCPC is always known for we planned to make it doable and decided that we needed some serious help here, which we enlisted in the form of students from the Zilla Parishad School at Dhanori and the Jagruti School for Blind Girls at Alandi. The day dawned with a total cloud cover over the city, with a threat of rain. The bigger threat however, proved to be covering the small distance from Wanowrie to Poona Club to board the bus. Sholapur road had been taken over in its entirety by the Warkaris accompanying the Palkis, and there was no way that one could cross it. The circumnavigation of this road resulted in us departing an hour later than planned (at 8.30 am instead of 7.30 am). So the bus departed from Poona Club at 8.30 am with President Sanjiv, First lady Rita Kumar, PPs Dr Anand Bhatia and Rakesh Bhargava, Rtns Prabhakar Jakkhal, Peekay Malhotra and yours truly; the omni present Gajanan and Hari were in the bus as well. Also on board were packed snacks (Wada pav, Shira, biscuits and Frooti for the children). We arrived at our allocated site by 9.30 and got to work right away after a small demonstration by the MFD personnel; our progress was slow and we wondered how we would be able to plant all the saplings that had been laid out. At 10.15 am our ‗troops‘ arrived, replete with banners and chanting slogans about importance of tree plantation. 100 students from the ZP school Dhanori accompanied by their Principal, Mr Lokhande. and some Teachers arrived on the scene and enthusiastically started the assigned task. It was an amazing sight to watch the children guided by their teachers and our members filling up lines after lines of plants in pits dug. The weather turned out to be ideal for outdoor work – overcast, with threats of passing showers. In fact we did have a brief spell of heavy drizzle, but nobody was seriously disturbed by it; such was the enthusiasm amongst all present. At about 11.15 am we were joined by girls from the Jagruti School for Blind Girls, Alandi, accompanied by their Principal, Mrs Waghmare and a few teachers. We had asked for a site close to the road for them, so that they would not have to climb up, but this proved to be totally unnecessary, as the girls, expertly led by their teachers were game to climb right up to the ridge line to plant the saplings. It was a treat to the eyes to see these girls working with the saplings. The tenderness with they handled the saplings, digging with their hands, and refilling the pits was as good as anyone blessed with full sight. They too did a fabulous job and it was much appreciated. Personally it was a very happy moment for me since I had taken the call to invite them despite reservations from some quarters. We had carried snacks and drinks for 120 children; the Jagruti students were sent off after they completed their allocated area, and some snacks at about 12.15 pm. The students from ZP school completed the entire area and were back at about 12.40 pm. It was then that we realized that the numbers seemed to be more than 100, and were told that the group allocated to another club had also joined up with our group and the number had swollen to over 175. Gajanan and Hari, supervised by Peekay and Rita ensured that none of the children went empty handed by expertly dividing the goodies amongst the children. We left the site after 1 pm, happily exhausted withy all the trekking up and down the slopes, bending on our haunches and getting our hands muddy. PP Rakesh had uploaded some photos and we got a congratulatory message from DG Prashant Deshmukh. An uneventful drive back to Pune and a ‗Warkari-free‘ Sholapur road brought to a close the days proceedings