Green ‘S’ Force—Celebration Planting 10 August 2013

Our good friends from the Green ‘S’ Welfare Force returned to finish up our 2013 planting season for a fun day of celebration planting.

The Green ‘S’ Welfare Force in New Zealand is part of Dera Sacha Sauda, a socio-spiritual  organisation in India.  Its current spiritual leader is Saint Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh ji Insan whose birthday is on 15th August.  The team asked if they could make the day a birthday celebration for their Guru Ji and we were very happy to agree.

Twenty-one members of the Green ‘S’ Force, including three who had come from Tauranga, three hours away, joined us for the day.  The group included Amandeep, Bharpoor, Dalveer, Deepak, Harpreet, Harvinder, Jagdeep, Jugseer, Karmjit, Navjot, Pawan, Pradeep, Randal, Ranjit, Samandeep, Simar, Suhas, Sukhwinder, Summit, Veerpal, and Vinod.

Ranjit is a professional photographer and he photographed and filmed the activities which will be shared at the celebrations in India to be held on the 15^th.  Ranjit, Simar and Summit came out early to set up the equipment.

The weather forecast had been for torrential rains and gale force winds, but the day turned out to be great with only an occasional sprinkle which didn’t dampen the celebration at all.

Once the rest of the group arrived we had morning tea.

The team then started getting ready for the celebration.

We were going to be planting in an area about halfway up to the top of the property and would be taking the team and the celebration trees up to the site in the ute.  So even the ute got spruced up for the occasion:

Mahrukh had baked a special egg-free birthday cake and we all sang happy birthday and recorded congratulatory messages for Guru Ji.

And then it was time to head to the nursery to prepare the celebration tree.

The tree selected to plant for Guru Ji is a Miro, (Podocarpus ferrugineus),  a native New Zealand tree that will grow to 30 metres and live for hundreds of years.

In addition to the big miro, the team also planted 175 other celebration trees including smaller miro, totara, puriri, taraire and titoki.  These are all canopy trees which live for hundreds of years, and so these trees will all be enjoyed for generations to come.

The team decorated the big miro

We then went up to the planting site where we planted the tree in a nice location.

Ranjit took his equipment into the field and photographed and filmed the planting.

Once the big tree was planted, the team planted the remaining celebration trees.

After planting the trees, the team cleaned up and then broke for the celebratory lunch.

And also celebrated with more cake and sweets.

We were very happy and moved when the team presented us with a gift of a beautiful photograph with a nice inscription.

The photo was taken by Ranjit on a previous visit to CUE Haven.

And we have the perfect wall space for it in the CUE Haven cottage.

This season at CUE Haven, we met our most ambitious planting goal ever thanks to the Green ‘S’ Force team members. We truly admire the group’s dedication to community service and the environment and very much value their friendship and support.  Our heartfelt thanks to you all.

We wish Guru Ji Saint Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh ji Insan a very Happy Birthday and many healthy and happy returns of the day. Long may he continue to lead the Dera Sacha Sauda organisation in their selfless work for the community and the planet.