First, a spindly apple tree descended from Richard Hodges’s plant trailer.
He lowered the base of the sapling into the hands of two students, and the next pair moved up in line. Fourth-grader Kelsei Douglas conducted traffic, advising that her classmates “watch out, watch out” and reminding them, “guys, we’ve got more over here.”
Carrying the heftier Asian pear tree required three children, balancing, yelping, bumping the fence enclosing the Southwick School’s nascent …