Press Release

Release Date: September 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Susie Pickering

Oak Lane Day School

137 Stenton Ave, Blue Bell, PA 19422

Phone: 610-825-1055

Fax: 610-825-9288

Email: spickering@oaklanedayschool.org

Where in the World is the Armentrout Preserve, and What Are our Students Doing There?

Oak Lane Day School is committed to providing community service that assists people and animals, and helps improve and preserve the environment. Mid-September, the Kindergarten through 6th grade students and their teachers took a trip to the Armentrout Preserve in Whitpain Township to continue work on a project of converting cultivated grassland back to its original forest state. Known as land succession, this process occurs naturally, but it may certainly be aided through human efforts.

Divided into class groups, the younger children were given the job of collecting seeds from indigenous plants that they then spread to other areas of the Preserve. Seeds were brought back to School to scatter in the meadow located in Oak Lane's 30 acres as well. Volunteers at the Preserve very carefully explained the difference between plants that are native to this area and those that are foreign and how the foreign "invaders" cause problems in the ecosystem.

Last year, Oak Lane's 6th grade class planted disease-resistant American Elm trees at the Preserve as their contribution to the service project. This year, it was most gratifying to see that all the trees had survived the planting and the winter and were now a thriving part of the understory growth that will eventually turn to full-fledged forest. Another six American Elms were planted by this year's 6th graders with high hopes that they, too, will live and grow.

Oak Lane Day School Information

An independent elementary school, founded in 1916 and located in Blue Bell, Oak Lane Day School serves a diverse population of boys and girls. Oak Lane honors each child's unique individuality while fostering intellectual, creative, academic, and personal growth within a diverse community of active, engaged learners. Small class sizes and an atmosphere that encourages children to develop their academic and social skills are priorities at Oak Lane, where learning is a meaningful and joyous pursuit. Oak Lane's country-like property of 30 acres along Butler Pike and Stenton Avenue boasts a stream, pond, woods, meadows, and specimen trees as well as athletic fields and playgrounds.

Oak Lane Day School is accredited by the Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools (PAIS), and is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) and the Association of Delaware Valley Independent Schools (ADVIS).