A group of pupils involved in a youth leadership conference planted a tree yesterday to mark Martin Luther King Jr Day.Pupils from public and private schools also used the occasion to signal the start of a massive Vision 20/20 tree-planting campaign by environmental group the Bermuda Climate Action Network.The ceremony look place after a Transformational Leadership Youth Session at the Bermuda Industrial Union, where the youngsters discussed how to tackle the most serious problems of their time.Community activist Glenn Fubler, who organised the conference and ceremony at the junction of Union Street and Dundonald Street in Hamilton, said that the event was timed to coincide with Martin Luther King Day.He added: “We wanted to use Martin Luther King’s birthday — an example of transformational leadership — to help the youth understand the conference theme of ‘everyone can make a difference’.”Mr Fubler said that the conference highlighted Bermudian figures who had made a difference as well as the renowned American civil rights leader.The 18 pupils discussed the impact of climate change on their generation and how they could mobilise to combat its dangers.Mr Fubler said: “The implications of climate change are on them even more than they are on us.“They’re the generation that’s coming up at this critical period.”He added: “If education is about the development and appreciation of what’s going on in your environment, then this has to be front and centre to their involvement.”“That’s the reason why we contributed to the Vision 20/20 campaign.”The Vision 20/20 campaign aims to plant 2,020 trees across the island by the end of the year.Mr Fubler said that the conference, for secondary school pupils, discussed how they could get their schools to back the campaign.He added: “They talked about having their student council adopt this campaign as one of the campaigns that the students may get involved in.“They also talked about how they as senior school students could actually network to the middle and primary schools and spread the campaign.”Veteran conservationist David Wingate and Charles Gosling, the Mayor of the City of Hamilton, also attended the ceremony.