NORTH CANAAN — Arbor Day and Earth Day were combined for a day at North Canaan Elementary School (NCES) last week, as students, staff and community members gathered to dedicate two newly planted flowering dogwood trees in memory of two beloved staff members lost in 2021.
Now in its 31st year as an annual observance, the ceremony was held on Friday, April 30, the official date of Arbor Day in 2021, as NCES Principal Alicia Roy guided the program of appreciation for the contributions of two staff members, each remembered with their own memorial tree.
The pink dogwood was dedicated to the memory of Katy Sherwood, a paraprofessional at the school for the past three years. She was the mother of two NCES students: Jake in the eighth grade and Abby in the seventh grade. A third child, Carter, will soon enroll at NCES.
The white dogwood is in memory of Leila Wood, who had served as school counselor since 1986. She was an unfailing source of comfort, courage and strength for NCES students over the years. (Her obituary is in this week’s Lakeville Journal, on Page A5.)
Sixth grade students recited poetry that they had written for the occasion.
Many volunteers contributed to the event. Roy thanked The Canaan Foundation for its general support of the school’s arboretum project, and she added thanks to the North Canaan selectmen and the town crew, including Chris Toomey, Bryon Carlson and Stanley Morby, for help with the planting work and seeing that the young trees got off to a good start.
Laurel Brook Natural Resources contributed three cubic yards of rich garden soil, and additional thanks went to Christian Allyn and Tom Zetterstrom for their continued attention to the arboretum.
While the observance of Arbor Day dates back to its beginnings as the idea of a Nebraska newspaperman in the early 1870s, the idea had spread steadily when President Richard Nixon named it a national holiday in 1970. Earth Day (celebrated on April 22 each year) also got its start in 1970, generally recognized as the start of the environmental movement. That movement is now in its 51st year.
