By PHOEBE DONALD ROBINSON

National Arbor Day is celebrated the last Friday in April. To celebrate Arbor Day, the Columbiana Public Library is having an Arbor Day program on Saturday, April 25 from 10 a.m. to noon where children (and adults) can come and plant spring plantings around the library.

Executive Director Tom Rary will give a program on the history of Arbor Day and the front and side entrances will be planted with new spring annuals. Assistant Librarian Sheila Gallups and staff member Martha Young will assist Rary with the Arbor Day program.

Arbor Day was founded on April 10, 1872 by Julius Sterling Morton of Nebraska City when an estimated one million trees were planted in Nebraska.

Birdsey Northrop delivered his Arbor Day and Village Improvement message in Japan in 1883 and was responsible for the campaign to make Arbor Day a nationwide event when commissioned by the American Forestry Association.

On April 15, 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt, a noted conservationist, issued an Arbor Day Proclamation to School Children of the United States about the importance of trees to our nation.

In 1972 on the centennial of the first Arbor Day, the non-profit Arbor Day Foundation was organized whose mission is: “We inspire people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees.” Today with over one million members, the foundation is the largest non-profit dedicated to planting trees and educating the importance of trees.

“I thought an Arbor Day program would be timely at this time of year,” said Rary. “The annuals surrounding the St. Francis statue at the library’s entrance and the plantings by the side entrance are sad looking. I thought it would be fun for kids to come learn about Arbor Day, plant these two areas to make the library attractive, and watch their plantings grow and hopefully thrive over the summer.”

Each child is encouraged to wear clothes that can get dirty! Trowels will be available for the children to use but you can bring your own, too!

Brown Lumber is supplying the flowers to be planted. Each child who attends will receive a seedling to take home, plant and watch grow!