Brentmoor Elementary, Mentor Tree Commission Celebrate Arbor Day

"The first thing I did this morning was look out the window and think, 'What a beautiful day to be planting a tree at Brentmoor,'" Cheryl Ray said to the second graders sitting in front of her Friday morning on the lawn of .

Ray, the chairman of the Mentor Tree Commission, commemorated Arbor Day by helping the students plant a redbud tree by their school.

The tree will one day grow to be about 25 feet tall.

"You young second graders may one day bring your children here and they can sit under the shade of this tree," said Clem Nesnadny, another member of the city's Tree Commission.

Nesnadny also told students the history of Arbor Day. It came from Julius Sterling Morton, a journalist and politician who came from Michigan. When he moved to Nebraska, he felt that the state’s landscape and economy would benefit from having more trees.

He received support for his Arbor Day idea from Nebraska’s Board of Agriculture. On the first Arbor Day held April 10, 1872, more than 1 million trees were planted. Later, the state made it an annual legal holiday.

In addition to planting the redbud, Brentmoor students sang songs about trees -- a snippet of "This Tree Is My Tree" is attached to this story -- and read the poem, "Hug A Tree."

The Mentor Tree Commission helps maintain the city's street trees and is also in charge of arboreal education.

Each year, it visits a different elementary school to commemorate Arbor Day. Last year .