Please for Trees

The following materials were prepared by Ken Kutska, Chairperson, Joint Public Awareness Committee.

A special program is being planned for Arbor Day 1981 by Illinois park and recreation departments throughout the state. This special project is a jogathon/walkathon event that will be held one week before Arbor Day, April 24, 1981. At this time Illinois communities conducting jog/walkathons will be raising money to purchase and plant trees. This event is being sanctioned and co-sponsored by the Illinois Park and Recreation Foundation and the Governor's Office.

Many organizations throughout the state are contributing time, effort and funds for the promotion of this event to purchase and plant trees. The main funding, however, will be raised by individuals in communities throughout the state of Illinois, as they register to walk or run on a Saturday or Sunday before Arbor Day 1981. The date will be established by the local park and recreation agency. People will pledge money to each individual runner or walker based on the number of quarter mile laps completed in a one hour time period.

This special Arbor Day program will raise funds to plant thousands of trees. Persons are encouraged to contact their local park district or park and recreation agency for more specific information or call the Illinois Association of Park Districts (217-523-4554) or the Illinois Park and Recreation Association (312-991-2820).

Illinois Park and Recreation agencies would like to see people all over the state walking or running to raise funds for the purchase of trees in observance of Arbor Day 1981.

This press release sums up the Joint Public Awareness Committee's efforts as of January 19, 1981. There are currently 36 park and recreation agencies signed up and beginning to organize their own jogathon. Many more agencies are receiving approval from their respective boards and will be jumping on the bandwagon.

"I wish that I should never see..."

For our committee to get this far has not been an easy task. We have had many obstacles to overcome, but we're near the top of the hill now, getting ready to gain momentum up to and through Arbor Day.

A statewide media network has been assembled. Through the help of Highland Park's computer, a mailing label program will be used to save this committee and many others in the future many hours of work.

A 30 second television public service announcement is being assembled with help from Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois. This P.S.A. will address both Arbor Day and the Jogathon. It will be distributed in early March. The Arbor Day message will be edited and reused in future promotion of this day.

Kick-off-jogs are being organized for the Northern Metro, Central and Southern areas of the state. Governor Thompson and other celebrities will be asked to assist in this form of early media promotion for the jogathon. If anyone has access to these types of individuals, please call me, the I.P.R.A. or the I.A.P.D. office. We need your assistance.

The committee has not been successful in locating a sponsor to assist financially in the promotion of this event; but many contacts were made. T-shirts are being designed and will be given to all participants running in the jogathon and returning 25 sponsor forms.

In the committee's efforts to locate a sponsor for the Jogathon, we repeatedly heard the same response. Everyone is interested in programs like this, but large contributions are unrealistic without years of preplanning. We still have a great oppor-

Illlnois Parks and Recreation 36 March/April 1981

tunity to solicit financial support from the private sector through vehicles like the Arbor Day 81 Jogathon. The committee will agree through the contacts we've made that sponsorship of events like this are not always feasible but contributions to these events or even patron memberships to our organizations are realistic and within corporate guidelines and budgets. All we must do is ask and follow-up on the requests.

HISTORY OF ARBOR DAY

Julius Sterling Morton, the founder of Arbor Day, was born in upstate New York on April 22, 1832. As a young man he made his way westward to Michigan where he received his education. Later, he moved westward to Nebraska and settled on a 160 acre tract of virgin grassland in a bleak, treeless area of the prairies. Here, he soon found the climate quite hostile to farming with gusty winds blowing away the black, fertile topsoil in great clouds of dust.

Morton recalled the protection the forests gave the land in the states where he had lived as a youth and so began the planting of trees and shrubs to prevent the loss of his valuable soil. These early efforts proved so successful that he increased his plantings and urged neighboring farmers to safeguard their own lands with windbreaks and reforestation.

On January 8, 1872, Morton, as a member of the Nebraska Board of Agriculture, appeared before this group to convince them of the wisdom of proclaiming the world's first Arbor Day. A year later the date was changed to April 22 in honor of Morton's birthday. For its early leadership in tree planting Nebraska became known as "The Tree Planters State".

The idea of Arbor Day gradually spread to other states and many foreign countries. Today all states celebrate Arbor Day.

By law, Illinois observes Arbor Day on the last Friday of April. However, many local communities observe Arbor Day before that time to fit school and other local programs. The official observance should be on April 24, 1981.

Illinois Parks and Recreation 37 March/April 1981