Parkside Students, Garden Club Plant Trees, Celebrate Arbor Day with Mayor

Proving its dedication to being a "Tree City USA," 95 fifth-grader students at Parkside Intermediate School and members of the Westlake Garden Club planted trees April 26 with the help of Mayor Dennis Clough. 

A buckeye tree was planted in the front yard of Parkside Intermediate School and marked with a plaque marking the occasion. Each students placed a shovel full of dirt around the tree and learned about the history of the Ohio buckeye tree.

Westlake Garden Club members also celebrated by planting a concolor fir along the Founders' Walk in Clague Park.

Poster winners announced

Parkside students also submitted posters April 26 to the school's first Arbor Day poster contest and a buckeye tree was planted.

Each poster was to include a paragraph of 150 words or less explaining why trees are important to the city of Westlake. The contest was sponsored by the Westlake Tree Commission in conjunction with Westlake being a Tree City USA.

The students illustrated on their posters the many ways trees are important and why trees should be preserved and protected in their city. The posters were then judged by Tree Commission members Mary Beth Schneidler, Margie Rossander,John Walz and Diane Morris, Stan Barnard, Urban Forestry Manager for the city of Westlake and Paul Quinn III, city of Westlake Service Director.

Each of the fifth-graders who submitted posters were then invited to participate in the year's Arbor Day ceremony and  to put their hand print on the City of Westlake's "Tree of Life" project from the 2013 Rain and Garden Show.

Six winners and six honorable mention posters were selected by the judges. Winners received a ribbon with the top six winning poster makers receiving a Proclamation from Mayor Dennis Clough proclaiming their day in Westlake.

The winning entries were submitted by: Samantha Thomas, Lexie Floyd, Selena Alamir. Allison Hook, Abdullah Abdul-Maani, Kari Adkins. honorable mention winners were Lydia Choban, Kerrigan Ponsart, Eric Kronz, Sophia Ricaurte, Mai Lin Conway and Kara Wilkinson.

Posters will be displayed the week of April 29 at the Westlake Recreation Center.