VOLUNTEERS LEAF MARK ON CAMPUS.

Byline: Laurence Darmiento Daily News Staff Writer

Meri Aijian was on her knees in the dirt Saturday outside Canyon High School, grappling with a stake that she and her friends had pounded into the ground next to a 3-foot tree.

The Canary Island pine may one day grow up to 60 feet in height and spread its branches 30 feet, lending some much-needed shade to the school's east parking lot.

That reason was good enough for Aijian, a 15-year-old sophomore at Canyon, to make her way to the campus long before 9 a.m. on a day she normally would have been doing something far less strenuous.

``I probably would be sleeping. Actually, I definitely would be sleeping,'' said the girl clad in sneakers and faded jeans. ``But we care about our school.''

Aijian was not alone. She was among 45 students, faculty members and parents who donated their time to plant more than 80 trees around the Nadal Street campus, where temperatures often soar into the 90s.

The cedars, pines, oaks and acacias were donated by the city through its Tree City USA program after the president of the school's Parent Advisory Committee decided more shade was in order.

The panel's president, Jacquie Wiggins, whose daughter Valerie is a junior at the campus, would drive by the football field and along one fence where just a few scraggly oleanders grew. She thought the campus needed some help.

After the city agreed to donate the trees, Wiggins employed her contacts at Newhall Land & Farming, where she works in finance. The company also agreed to help out, making the job a lot easier.

With the help of a machine used for planting orange trees at the company's Newhall Ranch on Highway 126, workers drilled holes for all the campus trees last week, she said.

That meant by 9 a.m. Saturday, dozens of trees already were in the ground, and volunteers were discussing a coming project to extend irrigation to some of the trees.

``It's great when parents, kids and the community can get together for something like this,'' said Cindy Bernsdorf, 47, whose daughter is a sophomore. ``We need more of it.''

Among the trees planted was a 15-gallon cork oak outside the school's Associated Student Body office.

Expected to eventually grow to 80 feet in height and span half that in width, the tree will memorialize Jim Waite, a long-time science teacher at the school who died last year of cancer.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1--color) Kelly Grady, left, and Andrea Stewartplant a tree at their school.

(2--color) Arlys Aijian, left, and Maria Catindig carry a pine sapling and supports.

John Lazar/Special to the Daily News