Rotary Plants Tree In Kantzler Memorial Arboretum
June 18, 2018
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By: Stephen Kent
When 2017-18 Rotary International President
Ian H.S. Riseley announced his presidential theme "Rotary: Making a Difference" he also introduced a Rotary initiative to plant trees world wide.
"Environmental degradation and global climate change are serious threats to everyone", Riseley said. "They are having a disproportionate impact on those who are most vulnerable, those to whom Rotary has the greatest responsibility. Yet environmental issues rarely register on the Rotary agenda. The time is long past when environmental sustainability can be dismissed as not Rotary's concern. It is, and must be, everyone's concern" he said.
Riseley, a native of Victoria, Australia, challenged every Rotary club to make a difference by planting a tree for each of its members between the start of the Rotary year on 1 July and Earth Day on 22 April 2018. Trees remove carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the air, which slows global warming.
"It is my hope that the result of that effort will be far greater than the environmental benefit that those 1.2 million new trees will bring" Riseley said. "I believe the greater result will be a Rotary that recognizes our responsibility not only to the people on our planet, but to the planet itself."
After consultation with Begick Nursery and Bay Landscaping, The Rotary Club of Bay City came to the conclusion that rather than seedlings, of which only a small percentage survive, the club would invest in planting a nursery grown sapling in the Kantzler Memorial Arboretum.
With the assistance of Jerry Somalski from Bay Landscaping, a group from the Rotary Club Of Bay City gathered at the Arboretum Monday evening, June 18, to participate in the planting of a native Red Maple. This tree, a true Red Maple, will have green leaves during the spring and summer. Those leaves will then turn brilliant red in the in the fall.
The Bay City (noon) Rotary club is the oldest service organization in the area. Founded in 1914, the club is now 104 years old. They have provided numerous services and many dollars to the local area as well as to world wide causes.
For more information about the Bay City Club and Rotary International visit
rotarybaycity.org.
Members take turns during the planting work.
President-elect Harvey Schneider watches President Bob Chadwick add the first of two buckets of water. Jerry Somalski and Ashley Anderson look on.
Stephen Kent
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Steve Kent and his family have lived in Bay City for 40 years. He is VP of Technical Services at MMCC which produces MyBayCity.Com. Kent is active in many Bay City civic organizations.
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