Emma Gray
Editor
On Friday, April 27 at 10 a.m., Parkland’s Foundation will be hosting its annual Living Tree Ceremony to celebrate Arbor Day and to honor and remember individuals with the planting of trees.
The ceremony will be held in the Dodds Multipurpose Room in the Child Development Center and will be followed by a short reception with refreshments. After the reception, people will go to visit with their trees.
This year, six trees will be planted in the Memorial Grove. The grove already has over 160 trees in it in honor, or in memory, of various people, according to Susan Goldenstein, Parkland’s foundation coordinator.
“From the red barns all along Bradley Ave, there’s rows and rows of trees and that is called Memorial Grove. There’s actually a sign out there if you look close enough,” Goldenstein said.
In order to have a tree planted in honor or in memory of someone, families or friends contribute $500 or more to the Parkland Foundation. This cost pays for the planting of the tree, the plaque, and for the maintenance of the tree according to Goldenstein.
The purpose of the event is to allow families a way to remember and honor their loved ones through a “living gift,” while beautifying the campus.
The Living Tree Program helps Parkland plant a variety of trees on campus, with Memorial Grove consisting of many kinds of trees. Goldenstein says that Parkland’s physical plant determines what kinds of trees should be planted each year, considering factors such as which trees will do best near which other trees.
“They try to do a variety, from flowering trees to small, short evergreens. There’s a large variety…I’m sure right now everything just looks dead, but come late spring, early summer, it looks really nice out there,” Goldenstein said.
Parkland has been holding an Arbor Day event almost every year since 1980 when the Parkland College Association created the Ad Hoc Arbor Day Committee during their senate meeting. In 1993, Parkland’s foundation started to host the annual Arbor Day event.
Arbor Day itself is a nationally celebrated holiday, however what day Arbor Day falls on depends on which state you are in, with some states hosting Arbor Day for a full week and some placing their Arbor Day celebrations at the best tree planting times for their region. In Illinois, Arbor Day falls on the last Friday of every April, which is also when the national holiday falls.
The people being honored or commemorated this year at Parkland include Ena Raaymakers Ballinger, Raymond Bielert, Mary K. Flora Farber Evans, Rupert Evans, Barbara J. and Edward F. Kobel, Shirley Clausen Mahaffey, and Geneva Katherine Stelle.
The deadline for having a tree planted this year has already passed, but for more information about the ceremony and about future tree plantings, contact Goldenstein at sgoldenstein@parkland.edu.
For more information about Arbor Day celebrations around the country, visit arborday.org.
