Buffalo Trace Distillery celebrated Arbor Day by welcoming 45 fourth graders from Second Street School in Frankfort for an educational, hands-on event that taught them about the importance of trees and how to plant and care for them.
Guest speakers Laura DeWald, Ph.D., tree improvement specialist, University of Kentucky spoke to the fourth graders about competition among trees in the forest, and Michael Mueller, the president, of Inside Out Landscape Design, spoke to the group about butterfly and moth species hosted by the tree species which will be planted.
Afterward, Buffalo Trace team members assisted the school children with the planting of a tree of their choice on the farm at Buffalo Trace, from red oak, eastern white pine, scarlet oak and flowering dogwood. Each child also left with a sapling to plant at home.
Earlier in the day, Buffalo Trace awarded bottles of its Single Oak Project Bourbon to four environmentally focused nonprofit organizations whose missions support environmental education, preservation and sustainability. Representatives from Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, Blackacre Conservancy and White Oak Initiative were on hand to receive the donation and will be holding fundraising events later this year with the bourbon.
The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation will be pairing up with the White Oak Initiative on its fundraising efforts. The Single Oak Project Bourbon bottles are part of Buffalo Trace’s pledge to donate 2,022 bottles in the year 2022 to various nonprofits globally for fundraising purposes.
“We think it’s important to give back to the community, so today’s event was twofold, educating future generations about the importance of trees, which are vital to our industry, and also donating some of our Single Oak Bourbon to four very worthy organizations, who we hope can raise lots of money for their environmental causes,” said Master Distiller Harlen Wheatley.
The additional recipients of the 2,022 bottles Buffalo Trace is donating this year have been selected and will be announced soon.
