OUR VIEW: Removal of ‘Leaves for Learning’ tree a bad move

» Tree at Wal-Mart may have been a little cumbersome, but it helped to make a great program more visible to the community

For the last few years, Wal-Mart has been a partner with Culpeper County Human Services in a program that helped to prepare many local students in need for the coming school year.

Here’s how it worked. Wal-Mart customers would go to the Leaves for Learning tree at the front of the store, where they would pick a leaf and buy whatever school supply was written on it.

The store would then collect the item and donate it to Human Services to be distributed to needy children.

The store still is a partner in the program, but the tree display is gone.

It’s been replaced by a poster on a wall — well, usually on a wall. At least once, it was found on the floor, according to Ashley Coleman, one of the organizers of the program.

A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said the tree was determined to be “overly cumbersome and presented a possible hazard if a cart or child ran into it,” so the company opted to do away with it.

The bottom line is people aren’t seeing the poster.

Wal-Mart traditionally has been the top contributor to the program. Store customers have yet to contribute anything this year, according to Coleman. Visibility probably has a lot to do with that.

Certainly, the Leaves for Learning tree is no more cumbersome or hazardous than the potato chip, soda, cheap DVD and other such displays that are placed right in the middle of the aisles.

It’s not our place to tell a private company what it must do with its space, but we don’t think the Leaves for Learning tree is too much to ask for and there’s a great benefit.

On that note, we commend Walgreens for displaying the tree and its customers for contributing. Buffalo Wild Wings, Chick-fil-A, Ledo’s Pizza and Tropical Smoothie, along with local church and community groups, also deserve praise for the contributions they are making.