Cartwheel for trees

By Erin O'Connor

Staff Writer

WESTFIELD "May the forest be with you," is the slogan of members of the Downtown Arboretum Project as they ask members of the community to support their Eighth Annual Tree Cartwheelathon that will take place at Stanley Park on April 28 at 1 p.m.

It will be in honor of the city's Arbor Celebration and Mayor Richard K. Sullivan will issue a proclamation of Arbor Day.

Individuals who sign up for the activities will be given a sponser form to aquire sponsorship that can be based on individual cartwheels or cartwheels for the whole program.

"The money goes to planting trees," Cynthia "Tink" Hartdegen, Project Coordinator, said to Reminder Publications.

According to Hartdegen, $1,900 is needed to raise money towards the planting of trees around Westfield. The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation will pay to reimburse the funds once spent so money is needed up front for the planting.

"We have planted 130 trees so far," Hartdegen said and added that the Arboretum Project has been in existence since 1999.

Hartdegen said there is currently no other tree planting effort in Westfield besides the Arboreteum Project, which is a branch of the Community Development Cooperation, a nonprofit organization.

"The city is not doing the planting but the [city] engineer included tree planting when he did sidewalk repairs," she said. "No budget includes tree planting and for the people doing the tree planting their budget is stretched."

There is no age requirement for the cartwheeling and if you are not an expert than somersaulting or forward rolls are accepted. There are different groups depending on age and the first 25 registrants receive a complimentary T-shirt for participating in the fund-raising event.

The sign up sheets thus far includes about 15, but members of the Project are expecting to see this number raised within the next week. Two members of the City Council as well as Sullivan plan on participating in the event. Hartdegen will perform the "Star Spangled Banner" on her trumpet and orange wedges will be served to all.

In case of rain the event will be moved to the Westfield State College Woodward Center. There will be awards and records set in seven age categories.

Other projects that the public is invited to participate in include the planting of trees at three areas in Westfield. There will be an organizational meeting on May 6 at 11:30 a.m. at the United Methodist Church. The two planting days for this event include May 17 and May 24 (tentative).

"They [trees] are suppose to be planted in areas to provide environmental justice," Hartdegen said.

The tree planting is funded by a relief grant in cooperation with the United Methodist Church and will involve trees planted at Kennedy Apartments, at Colonial Pine Acres and on Sherman Street near the Franklin Avenue School.

"There are lots of walkers on the street [Sherman] going in and it has almost no trees," Hartdegen said.

She said it is a goal of the project to have a variety of tree types around the school so students can learn the different tree types when going for walks.

To sign up for any of these events or to obtain more information call 977-9217 or visit wmasstreehuggers@verizon.net.