'The Best Place' to Put Down Roots

Principal Adam Federico, standing outside Holten-Richmond Middle School Friday morning with 26 of his students, town officials and the Danvers Garden Club, said the best place to plant a new tree was outside the school.

Why? Because a lot of growth happens in middle school. Danvers Town Manager Wayne Marquis and Garden Club President Anna Bertini agreed.

The occasion was the town's annual Arbor Day ceremony with the Garden Club and local students. This year they planted a green mountain sugar maple tree, which was donated by the Corliss Bros. in Ipswich.

Twenty students in the HRMS Choral Group sang "America the Beautiful" followed by three Student Senate representatives and three other students with ties to the Garden Club reciting an Arbor Day Proclamation.

"Trees say a lot about what our community stands for," Marquis said, noting there are thousands of town-owned trees around Danvers that the Forestry Division of the Department of Public Works is tasked with maintaining.

"We'll watch this tree grow along with our students," said Bertini.

She gave a brief history of the tree and explained that it was a shade tree, but it also has a sweet side: "It's the same tree that gives us maple syrup for our pancakes," she said.

To conclude the ceremony, students, club members and Marquis each took turns tossing in shovefuls of dirt. 

The Garden Club also presented Marquis with a check for $175 to cover the cost of 500 seedlings that were distributed Friday to elementary school students in town.

The students in turn get to plant a new tree (dogwoods) wherever they'd like.

Marquis reflected on when his own children were in elementary school more than 30 years ago and said he still has the trees to in his backyard to show for it -- a Colorado spruce, a redwood.

"It's not exactly native to the area, but it's growing like a weed," he said with a laugh, referring to the redwood in particular.