Arbor Day 2009 Wrap Up

The One Tree Makes a Difference campaign focused Arbor Day outreach efforts on school children in 2009. The extraordinary effort tied trees, enchanting sentiments from children and captivating ribbons into Arbor Week.

The goal was to strengthen our partnership with the City of Chicago, Bureau of Forestry’s Arbor Day program aimed at each of the 50 city wards. This effort culminated with the placement of a high profile Arbor Day tree on Michigan Avenue. Arbor Day classroom visits and ceremonial tree-plantings were ramped up to visit 25 schools during Arbor Week.

This extraordinary outreach effort during our busiest week of the year relied heavily on diverse staff and volunteers. Throughout the planting season ending in May, we visited 33 Chicago schools and 2,740 fourth-grade students. This effort was possible with a new training effort, and coordination with the volunteer office and support from Education. Nine volunteers and 6 staff were prepared for the school visits with the optional training done by Community Trees.

Prior to Arbor Day all 50 schools were mailed brilliant green ribbons for each of the 5,000 participating students, who were told to answer the question “How does one tree make a difference to you?”

Teachers led students in writing responses and 3,257 ribbons were returned to us with inspiring, humorous, and clever messages promoted on our website, the annual t-shirt design, and in press communications. The ribbons were used in decorating the Arbor Week tree on Michigan Avenue, and trees at the Arboretum. Some schools retained ribbons for use on their Arbor Day trees.

The adorned Michigan Avenue tree, a Triumph® elm, was a beacon of green throughout Arbor Week and planted ceremoniously in Grant Park at the end of the week.

Another 7 suburban events were educational programs and ceremonial tree plantings involving another 1,200 school children. We re-wrote and re-designed the Arbor Day booklet this year with fresh, new challenges and activities to teach kids about trees and Arbor Day. Nearly 9,000 booklets were distributed at events we in which we participated, and broad outreach to an additional 58 communities in the region placed another 13,000 booklets.

Notably absent from this year’s festivities was Morty the Oak. He was diagnosed with severe Phytopthora root rot and was under arborist orders to rest in soil for the season. He was sorely missed by event organizers and children.

Suburban events, especially fair-type events, account for much of our total outreach. Many communities host local Earth Day and Arbor Day fairs featuring “green” resources, organizations, products and activities. In all, we staffed a booth at 11 fairs, speaking with an estimated 1,600 adults about tree care, the role of trees in green living, Arboretum resources and membership. We entertained an estimated 1,460 kids with leaf rubbing activities and tree walks. Two of these events were tree sales that allowed us to apply our expert plant information to curious homeowners.

Other unique community Arbor Day events brought our season totals to 56 events in 24 communities reaching 1,900 adults and 5,400 kids to plant 946 trees and 1,100 seedlings. This was accomplished with the help of 30 fellow staff members and 11 volunteers who stepped outside of usual tasks to drive into unfamiliar city neighborhoods and speak in front of a classroom or give up a weekend day to answer questions and promote the Arboretum. We participated in events in the following communities:

Aurora, Bartlett, Bolingbrook, Chicago, Cicero, Darien, Elk Grove Village, Franklin Park, Glendale Heights, Hinsdale, Lisle, Lockport, Naperville, North Elgin, Palos Heights, Palos Hills, Palos Park, Park Ridge, St. Charles, Warrenville, Westchester, Westmont, Winfield, Woodridge.

Thank you to JEWEL-OSCO, presenting sponsor for Arbor Week 2009. 

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