2003-2004

Our Roots & Shoots group began in February 2003, with about 5 families, and children all under the age of 7. With such a small and young group, our early projects were simple yet creative, as we began our process of tuning in to the Roots & Shoots mission. One of our earliest projects involved reading stories about the young chimps in Gombe Forest helping each other. We compared pictures of chimpanzee hands with our human hands. The children then traced their own hands and decorated their pictures by attaching strips of paper with helping tasks to each finger. The tasks were all simple ways we can care with our hands, such as “help carry groceries,” “plant a tree,” “give a hug,” “pick up trash from a trail,” etc.