While most people enjoy the fiery palette of fall foliage, and many enjoy tracing, with their eyes, the dipsy-doodle paths of falling leaves, only a few are members of the Leaf Catchers Club.
To be a card-carrying member (more on that later), you must catch a leaf after it falls from a tree and before it hits the ground. It’s not that easy, and the almost constant Maine wind makes it harder.
The purpose of the Leaf Catchers Club I founded in my high school is to encourage fun, laughter and smiles. Get outdoors. Breathe in and enjoy the landscape. Reactivate the child within. The club is a “student organization,” but many teachers, coaches and parents have also joined.
I keep a poster in my classroom. Club members bring their leaves in, tape them to the poster and sign their names. It’s based on trust, which is why “integrity” is added to our motto of “speed and dexterity.” October is the only leaf-catching membership month.
I don’t remember how or why I started encouraging leaf catching, but now I know I continue the club, in part, for those teenage students who never seem to smile. Most of them, in my experience, have been girls.
I teach in extremely rural Maine where tall, leafy trees are plentiful. Sometimes we study haiku poetry, a Japanese genre often rich in natural imagery. Then we go outdoors to be inspired by nature and to write … almost always in October. I mention the club, and the students take it from there. If you’ve ever seen the beaming face of a young fisherman with a just-caught fish, you’ve seen the face of a leaf catcher.
My favorite memory is of one of those unsmiling, tough-luck teenagers locked onto the trunk of a 15-foot maple, shaking a few leaves loose. Then she and a similarly impassive friend ran in circles, laughing crazily before falling, all smiles, to the leafy ground.
During the annual meeting, I welcome all club members by shaking their hands with the secret handshake. It’s silly – that’s the point. Membership cards, also silly, quote Byron: “West wind … Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud! / One too like thee: tameless, and swift, / And proud.” I serve maple-flavored, maple leaf-shaped cookies. Our motto is “Carpe folio” (“Seize the leaf”).
Be careful as you go after your leaf. As you look up, your feet are left on their own below. You might twist an ankle or run into something. However, in over 15 years of leaf-catching clubs, no one has reported an injury.
There’s nothing wrong with passively taking in Maine’s fall foliage. But hundreds of proud, smiling leaf catchers, with color in their cheeks, are worth emulating. When’s the last time you had a chance to pirouette in the crisp fall air while something fell from heaven into your waiting hands?
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