Absolutely tree-mendous
Lincoln City’s Driftwood Public Library is branching out to celebrate Arbor Day by teaming up with Lincoln City Parks and Recreation, the Lincoln City Cultural Center and the Indian Education Program at Taft 7-12, for a series of events throughout April.
Driftwood will be kicking off the celebrations at the cultural center with a Story Walk on offer through the end of the month. Visitors can take a stroll and read pages from “A Day with Yayah,” posted throughout the center alongside artwork from the book.
Beginning Sunday, April 11, the library’s YouTube and Facebook pages will be the place to see new videos, including a new installment in a science series that demonstrates how trees produce oxygen. A recording of library director Kirsten Brodbeck-Kenney reading “A Log’s Life,” written by Wendy Pfeffer and illustrated by Robin Brickman, will be posted on Monday, April 12.
The cultural center is celebrating Arbor Day by creating and distributing special art kits fit for the occasion. The center has been giving out art kits as part of its Creative Quarantine program, distributing more than 6,000 of them to community members throughout the past year. The Arbor Day kits will have all the materials and instructions needed to create a mixed media artwork based on a coastal forest theme. Videos to guide people through creating their artworks will be posted on the social media sites of the cultural center, the library, Lincoln City Parks and Recreation and the Indian Education Program. The kits will be available for pick up during the center’s open hours, Thursday through Sunday, from 10 am to 4 pm, beginning Thursday, April 15. For more information, call 541-994-9994.
Art kits can also be picked up through Driftwood’s curbside service. To make an appointment, call 541-996-2277, Monday through Friday between 10 am and 5 pm.
The crowning event will happen from 4 to 5 pm on Friday, April 30, when Lincoln City Parks and Recreation and Driftwood Public Library host a free event at the community center that includes a visit from a naturalist, free tree saplings, swag bags and other giveaways, a story time about trees and, of course, the planting of a tree. This Arbor Day event celebrates Lincoln City’s 13th year of being a designated “TreeCity USA.”
“We are caretakers in the garden we call earth,” said Desi Clausing, Indian education specialist at Taft 7-12. “Trees help clean our air, provide shade in summer, homes for our animals and many other resources that are needed for our survival. ‘Touch the earth, heal the earth and love the earth’. This is not just important for our Native people but for all people. Joining together in community I feel is a huge step for our future of closing any gaps that may have been felt or experienced by others. Together we grow stronger, just like our trees.”
The Indian Education Program provides services for American Indian and Alaska Native students, helping meet their academic needs while increasing awareness of their culture and beliefs.
The first American Arbor Day was celebrated in Nebraska City, Nebraska, on April 10, 1872, when an estimated one million trees were planted in a single day. Birdsey Northrop of Connecticut globalized the idea when he visited Japan in 1883 and delivered an “Arbor Day and Village Improvement” message. In that same year, the American Forestry Association made Northrop the Chairman of the committee to campaign for Arbor Day nationwide. He also brought his enthusiasm for Arbor Day to Australia, Canada and Europe. Today, Arbor Day is a day of observance in which individuals and groups celebrate nature and plant trees on the last Friday in April.
For more information about Arbor Day programs, call the Driftwood Public Library at 541-996-1255 or email skhan@lincolncity.org, or the Lincoln City Parks and Recreation at 541-996-1248 or email llafon@lincolncity.org.