Arbor Day

Arbor Day 2008: The First Arbor Day Celebration for the Village of Central Square was held Friday April 25, 2008 at Goettel Park.  About 121 people turned out for the celebration.  The Central Square Fire Companies Auxiliary handed out seedlings.  Fulton Savings Bank donated a weeping snow fountain cherry and a flowering crabtree.  The Central Square Lions Club and Village of Central Square donated a tulip tree.  The Lion and Tiger Cub Scouts from Pack 711 of Hastings worked very hard  to earn a tree to donate to their community.  They leader challenged them to collect 3000 cans in 7 months.  They did and with the help of Senior Girl Scout Troop 318 of Central Square the scouts donated a flowering Cleveland Pear Tree to the park.  The Lions Club sold hotdogs and there was face painting and crafts for the kids.

Arbor Day 2009:  About 80 people turned out for the Village of Central Square’s Tree-mendous Celebration on Friday April 24, 2009.  The Central Square Fire Company Auxiliary provided seedlings that were handed out by Lioness Club members. 
   The Lions Club of Central Square donated a Cornelian Cherry Tree and the Lioness Club donated a River Birch.  Brownie Troop 635 donated a Pink Spires Crab Apple tree.  A memorial tree for Gabriel “Gabe” Buschle was planted from the Village and a Chanticleer Pear memorial tree for Donald Schultz was planted by his neighbors the Monica Family, the Saunders Family and Joe and Linda Lisi. 
   In addition to the tree planting the Lions Club had hotdogs for sale.  There also was face painting and several crafts activities.   The people who participated in the Tree-mendous tree search were Shannon McMullen, Patrick McAllister, Nancy McCune, Kayleigh Stevens, Nicolas Stevens, Benjamin Stevens and Matthew Stevens.  Their photos are on display now through Memorial Day at the village office. 

A Brief History of Arbor Day:    The first Arbor Day took place on April 10, 1872 in Nebraska. It was the brainchild of Julius Sterling Morton.  Julius was a Nebraska journalist and politician originally from Michigan.  Throughout his long and productive career, Morton worked to improve agricultural techniques in his adopted state and throughout the United States when he served as President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of Agriculture. But his most important legacy is Arbor Day.
Morton felt that Nebraska's landscape and economy would benefit from the wide-scale planting of trees. He set an example himself planting orchards, shade trees and wind breaks on his own farm and he urged his neighbors to follow suit.  Morton's real opportunity, though, arrived when he became a member of Nebraska's state board of agriculture.  He proposed that a special day be set aside dedicated to tree planting and increasing awareness of the importance of trees.  Nebraska's first Arbor Day was an amazing success.  More than one million trees were planted.  A second Arbor Day took place in 1884 and the young state made it an annual legal holiday in 1885, using April 22nd to coincide with Morton's birthday.
  In the years following that first Arbor Day, Morton's idea spread beyond Nebraska with Kansas, Tennessee, Minnesota and Ohio all proclaiming their own Arbor Days.  Today all 50 states celebrate Arbor Day although the dates may vary in keeping with the local climate.  At the federal level, in 1970, President Richard Nixon proclaimed the last Friday in April as National Arbor Day.  Sometimes one good idea can make a real difference.

           “He who plants a tree loves others besides himself.”--Thomas Fuller

Links:
Photos From Arbor Day 2008
Photos From Arbor Day 2009
The Arbor Day Foundation