Antonio Carrillo knew exactly where he would plant his Douglas fir.

“In the backyard; it’s big,” the 11-year-old fourth-grader at Lister Elementary School in Tacoma said Wednesday.

Classmate Antonio Ramirez, 10, had another spot for his seedling tree: “In my front yard right in front of my house,” he said, adding that he’d plant it with his parents as soon as he got home.

The boys were among 85 Lister fourth-graders who received 18-inch evergreen seedlings Wednesday as part of the state’s Arbor Day celebration.

More than 1,200 fourth-graders in 17 elementary schools in Tacoma received seedlings courtesy of Tacoma’s MilePost Credit Union. It teamed with Fourth Grade Foresters USA, a Nebraska-based program aimed at reinvigorating Arbor Day.

Statewide, more than 3,000 seedlings will be planted.

Jan Smillie, vice president of marketing for MilePost Credit Union, met the students on Lister’s front steps to hand out seedlings.

First she questioned them about trees and their place in the environment. Once they warmed to the subject, the students showed they had been listening in class.

They knew about trees and their gift of oxygen. They understood that trees absorb pollution and carbon dioxide. They knew trees are used for many things, including paper and pencils.

And totem poles, offered one youngster.

MilePost jumped at the chance to be part of the foresters project as a perfect way to be involved in the community and the environment, Smillie said.

The credit union could have had the seedlings shipped to the 17 Tacoma schools but decided it would be better to deliver them in person, she said. Schools were chosen because they were close to the credit union’s two office locations in East Side and Central Tacoma.

More than 185,000 seedlings of various varieties have been planted so far by fourth-graders in 38 states, said Debra Esher, who cofounded the project in Lincoln, Neb., three years ago.

Why fourth-graders?

“That is about the time children begin to understand the value of something outside themselves, of doing something for the greater good,” she said.

The project grew out of a small dot-com business Esher helped start in 2003 called freetreesandplants.com that serves workshops for people with disabilities.

The nursery industry donates plants and trees while the workshops contract to package them for mailing. People who want the plants pay only a special shipping fee that helps support the workshops.

When organizers found they had a surplus of trees, the seedling tree project was launched. Sponsors buy the trees and donate them to their communities. MilePost paid $1.59 for each packaged two-year-old seedling.

“It a great opportunity for a child to take their tree home, plant it, care for it and watch it grow,” Esher said. “One of our major goals is to revitalize the celebration of Arbor Day.”

Mike Archbold: 253-597-8692

Arbor Day facts

Observed: National Arbor Day is the last Friday in April; Washington State Arbor Day is the second Wednesday in April.

Purpose: To celebrate the importance of trees to human life by planting trees

Originator: Julius Sterling Morton, a Nebraska pioneer

First Arbor Day: April 10, 1872, in Nebraska

History: www.arbor-day.net

Fourth Grade Foresters USA program: www.fourthgradeforestersusa.com