Arbor Day Expo and Green Medal Awards part of day’s events
Arbor Day in Wake Forest is a truly huge event. The town will receive recognition as a Tree City USA for the 36th year, will give away 1,600 tree seedlings, will host an Arbor Day Expo where local organizations provide information abut trees, gardening and the environment, and will give Green Medals of Excellence to local people, groups and businesses who protect our trees and the environment.
It is all free and will take place Saturday, March 21, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in E. Carroll Joyner Park on Harris Road.
The tree seedlings will be blackgum, wax myrtle, yellow poplar and mockernut hickory, and volunteers will be on hand to help people decide which trees will grow best in their yards. The seedling giveaway will end when supplies of the seedlings run out.
The Arbor Day Expo is a family-friendly event to promote proper tree care, stewardship and community service. Members of the town’s Urban Forestry Board will distribute reusable Tree City grocery bags and temporary tattoos for children with the “Trees are Good” logo.
Other activities during the expo are a soccer demonstration sponsored by Soccer Genome, information about urban beekeeping, and the release of a rehabilitated hawk back into the wild.
People will have an opportunity to learn about and sign up for the Wake Forest Tree Stewards Volunteer Program, and children can participate in art activities and be part of a special raffle prize drawing just for them.
Food trucks planning to be at the expo are Charlie’s Kabob and Lumpy’s Ice Cream.
There will be raffle cards which can be stamped at each booth for an hourly prize drawing.
During the program, Mayor Vivian Jones will accept Wake Forest’s 36th consecutive Tree City USA award and Urban Forestry Board Chair Anna Faatiliga Berg will announce the winners of the Green Medal Awards of Excellence. The Wake Forest Public Works Department and Wake Forest Power staff will also be presented with Wake Forest’s first Tree Line USA award.
Android and iPhone users can have a handy pocket guide to this year’s Arbor Day celebration in the palm of their hands by downloading the Town of Wake Forest app and using the app’s “Arbor Day” function. Designed to offer smart phone users instant access to important details about Arbor Day, the function includes a schedule of events and details about the expo and tree seedling giveaway.
IPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and Android users can download the town’s free app by searching for “Town of Wake Forest” on iTunes, in the iPhone app store, or in Google Play or by scanning the appropriate QR code provided at www.wakeforestnc.gov/app.aspx.
Complete details about the Wake Forest Arbor Day Celebration are also available on the town’s website at www.wakeforestnc.gov/arbor-day.aspx.
In the event of inclement weather, the Arbor Day festivities may be moved inside the Wake Forest Renaissance Centre for the Arts, 405 S. Brooks St. For weather-related updates, call the Town of Wake Forest Weather Line at 919-435-9569. Smart phone users who have downloaded the app will receive a push notification message informing them of any schedule changes.
For more information about this year’s Arbor Day celebration, contact Urban Forestry Coordinator Jennifer Rall at jrall@wakeforestnc.gov.
The Wake Forest Arbor Day Celebration is the first in a series of outdoor events designed to celebrate the arrival of spring. Collectively entitled “Wake Forest Outdoors,” the events also include Dirt Day on Saturday, April 4, and HerbFest April 17-19 and April 24-26. For more information on Wake Forest Outdoors, visit www.wakeforestnc.gov/wake-forest-outdoors.aspx.
Arbor Day is part of an annual nationwide campaign to promote the planting of trees. The event began in Nebraska in 1872 when newspaper journalist J. Sterling Morton proposed a tree-planting holiday to the State Board of Agriculture.
Although National Arbor Day is celebrated on the last Friday in April, individual state commemorations are scheduled on dates better suited to their own tree-planting seasons. North Carolina officially celebrates Arbor Day on the first Friday following March 15.
The Urban Forestry Board, formerly known as the Tree Board, was established in 1978 as an advisory committee to the Wake Forest Board of Commissioners. The nine-member committee oversees all planting in rights-of-way and on public property.
