New tree on the block

Marisa O’Neil

A 25-foot Norfolk pine stood watch as a new kid moved into the

neighborhood.

Members of the Newport-Balboa Rotary Club planted a seven-foot

Australian willow on Tuesday at Kaiser Elementary school in Costa

Mesa to celebrate Arbor Day. The older pine tree, planted by Rotary

members some 20 years ago, sits just on the other side of a bank of

classrooms.

“We enjoy seeing the trees we’ve planted grow because they make

things a little more green,” club President Ed Rennie said.

Each Arbor Day of the last 35 years, the club has given seedling

trees to all third-graders in the Newport-Mesa Unified School

District. That adds up to about 83,000 total over the years, Rennie

said, plus a larger tree planted at a different district school every

year.

Arbor Day started in Nebraska in the late 19th century when

journalist J. Sterling Morton proposed a tree-planting day. National

Arbor Day is the last Friday in April, but some states set different

dates according to their optimum tree-planting season.

California’s official Arbor Day celebration this year is from

March 7 to 14.

“I grew up in this area, and I got a tree when I was in third

grade,” third-grade teacher Sherrilynne Dangl said. “It’s a big thing

for me now, seeing kids get their own trees.”

She didn’t know what became of the tree she had planted in the

third grade. But her back yard is filled with every tree she has

received in her past 10 years as a teacher.

Bonnie Sykes, a sixth-grade student council member who helped toss

soil on the willow’s roots at the ceremony, also remembered the tree

she got when she was in third grade. The evergreen is at her family’s

cabin in Humboldt.

Third-grader Riley Ricker had a general idea where his tree would

go.

“Probably out somewhere my dog can’t get it,” 8-year-old Riley

said. “Right now, it’s on top of my baby brother’s dollhouse.”

As for the willow, 12-year-old Danny Jackson might just have to

check up on it years from now, after it catches up a little to the

pine tree.

“I’ll probably come back when I’m older and see if it’s still

there,” Danny said of the willow.