On Friday, April 28, 2016, the Pennington Shade Tree Committee will host Pennington Borough’s annual Arbor Day celebration with the help of first grade students at Toll Gate Grammar School. The ceremony will take place at 10am on Main Street and East Welling Avenue. The Shade Tree Committee will be planting a Kwanzan Cherry tree, and the first grade students will read their original haiku poems about trees.
“So much of our children’s education is about making connections,” said Toll Gate Principal Faye Lewis. “On Arbor Day, the children are making connections between lessons in the classroom, the art they created through these beautiful poems, and the environment in which they live. We are happy to continue this partnership with Pennington Borough and the Shade Tree Committee to provide this opportunity to our first graders each year.”
The Borough will issue a Proclamation to commemorate Arbor Day in which Mayor Anthony Persichilli urges all citizens “to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands and to support our urban forestry program”.
“It is never too early to teach our children about the value of trees in our community and on our planet,” said Gabe Rosko, Chair of the Pennington Shade Tree Committee. “We are happy to spend Arbor Day with the first graders of Toll Gate, to plant this tree, to hear their thoughts about trees and to help keep Pennington a Tree City.”
Pennington has achieved Tree City designation annually for each of the past 30 years. Tree City is a program of the Arbor Day Foundation that honors communities across the country that maintain a tree board or department, have a community tree ordinance, spend a minimum per capita amount on urban forestry and celebrate Arbor Day.
The Pennington Shade Tree Committee is a seven-member citizen board that is responsible for maintaining a healthy canopy of shade trees throughout the Borough.
