Ann Blanche Smith Elementary School celebrated Arbor Day with a traditional tree planting on May 2. From left to right are students Sabrina, Lila, Hope, Geoffrey, Justin, Tyler, Lian. The adults are Bob Cinek, representing the Hillsdale Environmental Committee, and Allen Saslowsky, a longtime teacher at Smith School.
Separately, St. John’s Academy students and faculty, and Mayor John Ruocco and Councilman Zoltan Horvath, celebrated Arbor Day with a tree planting May 6.
Meadowbrook Elementary students and faculty gathered May 3 to learn about Arbor Day but inclement weather pushed the ceremonial planting of a red maple to another day.
On the first Arbor Day in the United States, April 10, 1872, an estimated one million trees were planted. The Arbor Day Foundation quotes the event’s founder, J. Sterling Morton—editor of Nebraska’s first newspaper—in part: “Each generation takes the earth as trustees. We ought to bequeath to posterity as many forests and orchards as we have exhausted and consumed.”
Arbor Day in New Jersey is celebrated on the last Friday in April.
For more information, visit arborday.org.
— Photos by Zoltan Horvath