BTS Fans Create Forest in Seoul to Celebrate RM's Birthday

Publish date: 2024-09-29

Dedicated fans of South Korean pop group BTS have united to create a forest dedicated to the band's leader RM to mark his 25th birthday.

Around 250 fans gathered at Seoul's Han River Park to to plant 1,250 trees Saturday, according to the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement. The project coincides with RM's birthday on September 12, reports the Yonhap News Agency.

Fans donated nearly $10,000 to plant the trees, in honor of RM's commitment to environmental issues.

The exact amount donated also has special significance to RM: Fans pooled together 1,994,000 South Korean won (about $1,641) to denote the year of RM's birth, 1994, and a further 9.2 million won (about $7573) to mark the date of his birthday.

The forest will be named RM Forest No. 1 and according to fans on social media, plans are already afoot to create a second forest in 2020.

Twitter user @HoneyJoonie94 said Tuesday: "Ahhh I feel so inspired by everyone's positivity and love! I will work harder for a better project for RM Forest 2!"

Ahhh I feel so inspired by everyone's positivity and love! I will work harder for a better project for RM Forest 2!

— 허니주니 (@HoneyJoonie94) September 3, 2019

A Twitter account for the forestation project has gained over 11,000 followers. On Saturday, the account updated fans on the progress of building RM Forest No. 1, which also features a plaque dedicated to RM, real name Kim Nam-joon.

According to the Twitter page, the forest project has been in the works since 2017, when BTS first gained worldwide notoriety.

"I just wanted to thank the Jon profit company #서울환경연합 because as you can see in the pic I've been trying to do this forest project since fall of 2017. But after non stop rejection and no answers I thought it was a dream further than a star," the account tweeted.

"I found this current non profit group and they were so quick to reply with such positivity. I just really wanted to thank them and can't wait for RM Forest #2.

"I wanted to do a forest project because I wanted to do something that would impact the world. The world that we live in, the world that Joon lives in. It is nice to buy him lots of cool clothes and gifts but... I know all those are material things that he can get himself as well."

BTS—also featuring Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook—are the first K-pop act to top the Billboard 200 albums chart. They have scored three No. 1 albums in the U.S. to date: Love Yourself: Tear and Love Yourself: Answer, released in 2018, and Map of the Soul: Persona, released in April.

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