North Star teen spearheads event to plant 400 trees at Yezidi cemetery in celebration of Arbor Day

In honor of Arbor Day, a Lincoln North Star High School senior took on an ambitious project: plant over 400 trees at the Yezidi Cemetery near Malcolm. The plan is in conjunction with the United Yezidi Community of America and the Arbor Day Foundation.

Maysaa Khalaf is Yezidi and immigrated to the United States from Iraq in 2016. She joined the Girl Scouts and many other clubs and organizations to make friends, learn about American culture, and take advantage of opportunities she wouldn’t have had in Iraq.

“We’re planting 407, now we have in total,” Khalaf said.

The project is also an attempt for her to achieve one of the highest awards in Girl Scouts – the Gold Award. The planting also has personal significance for Khalaf. Her father died last year and is buried in the the cemetery. It’s a way to honor her father and future Yezidis.

“I was thinking about the Yezidi cemetery because this is the only thing we have in the United States, and this is the first thing we offered the Yezidi community in America here in Lincoln, Nebraska,” she said. “I was thinking about beautifying this area because honestly it needs help. It does not really have any trees, any flowers.”

Dozens of volunteers came to help.