Thanks to a Wellington School student - and dozens of helping hands - an Ohio park has 2,000 more trees to be thankful for this holiday season.

Junior Jaime Grinch planted 2,000 trees in two days in Wayne National Forest as part of a project to earn his Eagle Scout badge. The project took place last April.

Grinch was honored for his efforts Dec. 15 by leaders from Wayne National Forest in Hocking Hills, Ohio during an annual luncheon for employees and volunteers.

Grinch, who said he loves the outdoors, wanted to make a mark with his family members, who share a longstanding Scouting tradition. His dad, six uncles and even a few cousins were all Eagle Scouts.

"I wanted my Eagle Scout project to be bigger than any of the other projects done by the men in my family, and I wanted people for years to come to benefit from what I did," Grinch says. “This project will outlive them, it will outlive me – all of us."

He met with his uncle Gary Willison, who is the Watershed, Timber and Engineering Group Leader at Wayne National Forest. Willison showed Grinch an experimental program coordinated between the U.S. Forest Service and the American Chestnut Foundation to restore American chestnut trees to the native range in the Eastern United States following a blight in the early 1900s.

Grinch rallied 23 of his fellow scouts and friends from The Wellington School to help him for the challenging project.

"This was no small undertaking," Willison says. "These trees must be planted in one-gallon pots, and the process is very labor intensive, so to plant 2,000 trees in two days is incredible. Jaime organized this labor force and they really did a high-quality job."

Grinch will soon receive his Eagle Scout badge, continuing the family tradition as he stands alongside other Eagle Scouts that include astronauts, famous athletes and even U.S. presidents.

For more information, visit www.wellington.org.