2008 National Arbor Day Awards

Arbor Day Celebration Award

Celebration Award

Eastside Elementary School

Eastside Elementary School of Clewiston, FL, is the recipient of a Celebration Award, which goes to the school, community, or state program that best represents the spirit of the tree planters’ holiday. Students and teachers at Eastside came up with a unique way to celebrate Arbor Day by transforming a barren piece of land in front of the school into the Eastside Elementary Pineland. Students and volunteers planted more than 160 trees, and then put on an all-school assembly to honor Arbor Day. Today, the area is used by science and math classes as students study nature and become more aware of the environment.

This year’s winners are:

• Lifetime Stewardship Award

  • Dr. Peter Raven of St. Louis, MO

• Frederick Law Olmsted Award

  • Buck Abbey of Baton Rouge, LA

• Caroline French Morton Award

  • Jeunesse Park of Johannesburg, South Africa

• Lawrence Enersen Award

  • Debbie Mendelson of Woodside, CA

• Lady Bird Johnson Award

  • Green Streets for Omaha, NE

• Rachel Carson Award

  • Long Island Nature Collaborative for Kids of Long Island, NY

• Good Steward Award

  • Kurt Berger of Sugar Grove, PA
  • Johney Haralson of Denmark, SC
  • The Ziolkowski Family of Crazy Horse, SD

• Project Award

  • The City of Buffalo and Re-Tree Western New York of Buffalo, NY
  • Johnson City Housing Authority of Johnson City, TN
  • Rain to Recreation of Lenexa, KS
  • The USDA Forest Service Living Memorials Project of Newtown Square, PA

• Education Award

  • The Forest Where Ashley Lives by Mark and Ashley Vitosh of Ames, IA

• Media Award

  • If I Were a Tree by Dar Hosta of Flemington, NJ

• Celebration Award

  • Eastside Elementary School of Clewiston, FL

• Promise to the Earth Award

  • Doubletree Hotels
  • Home Depot Foundation