‘Moon Tree’ Ceremony Crowns Year of Sustainability Progress

On this year’s Giant Relay Day—May 23, 2025—another very special event took place in a quiet corner of campus, away from the all-school relay race festivities that have been celebrated for more than 70 years. Colorado Academy faculty, Operations Team members, families, and other guests gathered on the knoll adjacent to the West Patio of CA’s Dining Hall to get their first look at a tiny Douglas Fir seedling with a unique backstory. 

The “Moon Tree,” as it’s now known, arrived this May courtesy of NASA, which named CA an official custodian of an Artemis I Moon Tree seedling, grown from a seed that flew aboard the Orion spacecraft in 2022 during a 25 ½-day journey beyond the Moon and back. More than 200 Moon Tree seedlings of different species have been planted around the country since the NASA mission returned to Earth with 2,000-plus seeds in 2022.

This was definitely no ordinary planting ceremony on the knoll, where other trees memorialize former employees and offer a shaded spot for reflection. CA’s selection as a Moon Tree recipient was the result of three years’ worth of effort by a dedicated team of parents, faculty, and staff members, who successfully worked through the NASA application process. 

Says Assistant Director of Operations and Sustainability Lead Jerel Dalrymple, who initially floated the idea of applying for the NASA program with several administrators, teachers, and parents eager to boost sustainability efforts on campus, “I’m super excited we finally got this tree in the ground, because it’s been a long time coming.”

Adds Assistant Head of School Amy Wintermeyer, who collaborated with Dalrymple and his partners on bringing the tree to campus, “Being selected by NASA is a tribute to the huge strides we’ve made in CA’s sustainability this year with the enthusiastic participation of faculty, staff, students, and families.”

Dalrymple first led CA to apply to receive a Moon Tree when the STEM initiative was announced in 2022 as a joint program with the USDA Forest Service. After not being selected among the first round of recipients, he recruited CA parent Dr. Lora Koenig, a research scientist and previously a NASA expert in remote sensing of ice sheets and snow, to help with a second round. This time, Dalrymple carefully laid out key reasons for NASA to consider CA: Sustainability education is already a priority on campus; the school maintains an environmentally-friendly irrigation system that would nourish the Moon Tree with water from Woody’s Pond; and Guster the biodigester—only the second of its kind installed at a school in the U.S.—turns the nearby Dining Hall’s waste into nutrient-rich compost easily delivered to the planting site. 

The school and the hillside near the Dining Hall, Dalrymple and his team argued, offered a uniquely welcoming home for a space seedling. NASA agreed, writing back, “An extensive review of more than 1,300 applications was conducted jointly by the NASA Office of STEM Engagement and the USDA Forest Service, and your combined education impact statement and tree care plan distinguished your application as a top candidate.”

At the planting ceremony, sustainability advocates from across the CA community listened as Wintermeyer saluted the efforts of Dalrymple and his Operations Team colleagues, parent volunteers, and faculty members such as Lower School science Master Teacher Diane Simmons to bring greater attention to the ways that CA can become more sustainable. 

“We now have sustainability coordinators across campus working in all divisions of the school and across all our programs in athletics, the arts, and our libraries and technology departments,” said Wintermeyer. “We also have robust student-led environmental clubs in the Middle School and Upper School, and our Lower School science curriculum continually inspires future advocates for the environment.”

Wintermeyer also called out the yearslong involvement of volunteers in CA’s sustainability progress, including parents Willa Fawer and Elizabeth Kelly. “They’ve pushed us to think more deeply about what CA could be doing.” Recent wins that have come about with the help of these community members, she noted, include the installation of 12 electric vehicle chargers adjacent to the Leach Center for the Performing Arts, as well as the introduction of a plastic-film recycling partnership with Ridwell.

“I’m so grateful to see our Moon Tree as a symbol of the many initiatives that will live on at CA for years to come.”

The seedling from space may stand only about a foot tall today, but, as Dalrymple notes, the Douglas Fir will eventually tower 50-100 feet over campus, pinpointing one spot where sustainability at CA has come down to Earth.