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Joliet will celebrate Arbor Day on Friday as the city also marks 31 consecutive years as a Tree City USA.
The Arbor Day celebration will be at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, where students will join the city in its annual tree planting ceremony.
Students at the school also participated in the city’s annual Arbor Day Poster Contest. Winners are: Sophielynn Miranda (first place), Sindy Godinez (second place) and Joseph Arteaga (third place).
The city each year selects a school for its Arbor Day celebration.
“We have shown we care about trees in Joliet,” Rita Renwick, chairwoman of the city’s Tree Board, told the City Council last week in a presentation on the Arbor Day plans. “We have been designated a Tree City for 31 years.”
The National Arbor Day Foundation awards the Tree City USA designation to municipalities that meet certain standards for support of tree growth.
The city noted in a news release that this year is the eighth in a 10-year growing program that is adding trees of diverse species to public areas of Joliet.
The release also noted that residents may fill out requests for parkway trees by going to the city’s website, joliet.gov, and selecting Departments-Public Works-Forestry-Forms.