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Arbor Day
Put-in-Bay’s 18th Arbor Day Celebration was held on Friday, April 24th, at 4 p.m. in DeRivera Park and the Duff Homestead Preserve.
During a brief Arbor Day speech, Kelly Faris, Chair of the Village Tree Commission, reviewed the language of trees: “We turn a new leaf; We branch out; Our ideas blossom; A new adventure bears fruit; Our momentum is sapped; Our resolve is deep-rooted; and Sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees.”
Sixteen adults and children participated in the Put-in-Bay celebration. An American Basswood Tree, also known as an American Linden, was planted in DeRivera Park near the bathhouse.
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After the planting of the tree in DeRivera Park, the group moved to the Duff Homestead where five trees were planted. Two trees were donated by J.R. and Cathy Domer: A Contender Peach in memory of Cathy’s mother Nancy Russell, and a Honeycrisp Apple in memory of Cathy’s father, Bob Russell. Bob Russell was a long-time member of the Board of Trustees of the Lake Erie Islands Conservancy. J.R. and Cathy helped plant the memorial trees. Three peach trees donated by Sharon Gray were also planted at the Duff Homestead Site.
After the planting, the group adjourned to the Duff Home to enjoy pizza, donated by the Village, Chip Duggan and Jeff and Kendra Koehler.
The Council of the Village of Put-in-Bay allocates funds for Arbor Day.
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Put-in-Bay, Ohio, has been named a Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation in honor of its commitment to the goals and principles of the Arbor Day Foundation: a tree commission, a tree-care ordinance, an annual community forestry budget, and an Arbor Day observance and proclamation.
Members of the Village of Put-in-Bay Tree Commission are Lisa Brohl, Kelly Faris and Kendra Koehler.
Arbor Day was first observed on April 10, 1872, when Sterling Morton introduced a Nebraska State Resolution to designated a day for planting trees and offered a prize for the person who planted the most trees. Over 1 million trees were planted. At that time, Nebraska was a treeless and dusty state.
The idea to plant trees and celebrate trees caught on and observances were held in near-by states and eventually across the United States and across the world. By 1978, all fifty states officially celebrated Arbor Day. Other holidays celebrate the past. Arbor Day celebrates the future.
The state of Nebraska named Arbor Day a state holiday in 1885 and changed the date to Mr. Morton’s birthday, April 22. In 1972, Richard Nixon issued a proclamation to mark the 100 anniversary of Arbor Day and declared the last Friday in April to be National Arbor Day.
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