Arbor Day was on Friday, April 28, this year. A small celebration was held on Saturday the 29th at Blair Square. It included the planting of a native Sugar Maple tree, which was dedicated to Carol Merritt, a late garden club member, and included the reading of the winning poems from our poetry contest with the 5th grade classes at the Miller Elementary School.

Report on our Arbor Day Celebration
by Sharon Thornton

Holliston Garden Club Treespotters had their Arbor Day event on Saturday 4/29 at Blair Square. It is not open yet to the public; Carol Holly and I got special permission from the Police Chief, Select Board, and the Park and Recreation Department.

We had about 30 people in attendance. Tina Hein read the town’s proclamation which is a requirement of becoming a Tree City. We had some special visitors: our Representative James Arena-DeRosa, along with Matt Zeddick and members of the Select Board Tina Hein and John Cronin. We also had our Federation President Jill Malcolm and a former Federation President whose granddaughter won our poetry contest. 

Val Howes and Lee Guertin welcomed everyone then I gave an overview of Arbor Day. Tina read the proclamation, and then we had our three winners read their poems – Olivia Lima 3rd place, Emily Spurway 2nd place, and our first place winner Andromache McCoy Oliver. Carol passed out their ribbons.

We dedicated our Sugar Maple to Carol Meritt, and Roger helped give a toast to her tree. 

Val Howes and Nikki Hafele led us in singing “God Bless America”. I encouraged everyone to vote at our town meeting and asked them to check out our display at the library. We ended with refreshments.

We were lucky the rain held out. 

Winning Poems from the 5th Grade Poetry Contest:

Thank you to all of the Fifth Graders who submitted wonderful poetry, and thank you to everyone who was involved in our Arbor Day event!