Four Vacaville public schools will be a bit more ‘green,’ thanks to the raceway in Sonoma and NASCAR. Fifty-eight trees were donated to the Vacaville Unified School District through ‘NASCAR Green Clean Air’ an initiative that neutralizes all the carbon produced by NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events. The trees will be distributed between Markham Elementary School, Orchard Elementary School, Browns Valley Elementary School and Vacaville High School. A ceremonial planting of three live trees was held on Friday at Markham Elementary School, and was attended by Vacaville Unified School District Superintendent John Niederkorn, Markham Elementary School Principal Manolo Garcia, Buckeye Nursery’s Kim Bertotti, raceway representatives and several students. The raceway, which hosts an annual NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event each June, has participated in NASCAR’s Green Clean Air program since 2009. The initiative plants trees for every green flag waved during a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event. There were three green flags at the Toyota/Save Mart 350 in Sonoma last June, so 58 trees (30 western arborvitae, 20 pear trees and eight California redwoods) are being planted at the Vacaville Schools. Past beneficiaries of this program have included Roseland Creek Elementary in Santa Rosa, City Park in Vallejo and Petaluma Junior High School. NASCAR purchased the trees from Buckeye Nursery, a Women’s Business Enterprise National Council-certified business in Petaluma.(Sonoma)(10-15-2012)
