Botanical Garden Celebrate Arbor Day
BY DAN MILLER

Photos Dan Miller/DMD Images Queens Borough President Helen Marshall (fourth from r.) was joined at the Bee Hive exhibit by City Councilmembers James Gennaro John Liu, Peter Vallone Jr. and, Susan Lacerte, Queens Botanical Garden executive director (at Marshall's l.), Frank Mirovsky, QBG Board of Trustees chairman and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey airport services manager (at Marshall's r.), Lillian Tan, general manager of MarketPlace Development, Inc., Newton, Massachusetts (second from l.) and QBG Head Bee Keeper Urte Shaedle (far l.) to accept a check for $7,500 from Bill Huisman, Aviation Development Council director (far r.) to support the Bee Garden and its related programs.

BY DAN MILLER

On Friday morning, May 2, more than 1,000 public school children, including many from Queens' schools, joined Queens Borough President Helen Marshall and City Councilmembers John Liu, Peter Vallone Jr. and James Gennaro to help the Queens Botanical Garden celebrate its 33rd Arbor Day.

This year is the 136th anniversary of Arbor Day, a day traditionally associated with the planting of trees by schoolchildren throughout the United States. Arbor Day was first observed in 1872 in Nebraska at the suggestion of newspaperman Julius Sterling Morton. Morton is credited with saying, "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 is held on different dates throughout the spring in the United States according to each region's planting season.

Queens Botanical Garden Head Bee Keeper Urte Shaedle discusses the importance of bees and their life cycle to the environment.

Almost 1,200 schoolchildren paraded around the Queens Botanical Garden showing signs and posters they had made to help promote the meaning of the Queen Botanical Gardens Arbor Day Celebration.

Marshall was joined at the Bee Hive exhibit by Liu, Vallone and Gennaro, Susan Lacerte, Queens Botanical Garden executive director, Frank Mirovsky, chairman of the Garden's board of trustees and Port Authority of New York & New Jersey manager of airport services, Lillian Tan, general manager of Market Place Development, Inc., Newton, Massachusetts, with local offices located at LaGuardia Airport, Dolores Hofman, Queens Air Services Development program manager, and Garden's Head Bee Keeper Urte Shaedle to accept a check for $7,500 from Bill Huisman, Aviation Development Council director, to support the Bee Garden and its related programs. Donald Henton represented Assemblymember Ellen Young.

Queens Borough President Helen Marshall enjoys a poster and an exhibit on bees by students from P.S. 140, Jamaica.

Vallone talked with a group of children from P.S. 276 in Canarsie, Brooklyn about the importance of saving the environment and how trees and plants do their part to help provide oxygen for people to breathe. "This is the largest Arbor Day celebration in New York City," he told them.

Liu and Gennaro spoke with a group of students from I.S. 230, Jackson Heights and P.S. 140, Jamaica about bees and honey production following a bee and honey discussion by exhibitors from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm.

It's a beautiful day at the Queens Botanical Garden to help celebrate Arbor Day with the kids," Liu said. "We have a couple of thousand kids here. It is really a great day for kids to be out with nature."

"To involve the children is just great," Marshall added. "Even though it is a cloudy, overcast day they are really learning a lot. They are learning about what bees do. I learned things about bees that I did not know. When you involve children with nature you are involving them with science."

The keynote speaker was Stubby Warmbold of Citilog, Inc., the largest salvager of wood from urban areas in the U.S. He spoke about the importance of planting trees and plants to help protect the environment. Citilog helps protect the environment by keeping usable material out of the waste stream. Their "green" thinking and ecological process result in handcrafted products. The Arbor Day celebration culminated with a tree planting ceremony with students from P.S. 140, Jamaica participating.

P.S. 140 brought the largest number of students to the Arbor Day celebration, which coincided with the school's 80th anniversary. Six classes from I.S. 230 attended, along with Assistant Principal Donna Vitale and chaperones and classroom teachers.

Dozens of environmental exhibits were on display for visitors. Exhibits were sponsored and set up by many schools in attendance as well as the New York State Department of Conservation, the School Tree Planting Program & Million Trees Campaign, the United States Department of Agriculture, the Long Island Arboricultural Association, Inc., the American Museum of American History, the Queens County Farm Museum, the Queens Museum of Art, Trees New York, Brushy Mountain Bee Farm, Inc. and the Queens Botanical Gardens Crafts Shop.

The Queens Botanical Garden Crafts Shop exhibit was coordinated by Lillian Press, Berul Bruse, Marie Gavroy and Beatrice Schechter, four volunteers with a combined 50 years of volunteer service to the Queens Botanical Garden.

Financial support for the event was provided by Market Place Development and the Laura B. Vogler Foundation. The Bee Garden and its related programs enjoy support from the Aviation Development Council.