Don't Miss: Peekskill's 1st Cherry Blossom Festival

The Rotary Club of Peekskill will host its 1st Annual Cherry Blossom Festival, Plant Sale and Book
Drive April 28 at the Peekskill Riverfront Green. Admission and parking are free with easy access from the Peekskill train station.

The event will go on, rain or shine. Festivities will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. featuring a plant sale, book drive, ceramic pot painting, poster contest and kids’ activities that include face painting, candle making, a cherry tree trail tour with prizes and an educational scavenger hunt.

In addition to a Cherry Blossom Raffle, there will also be a Silent Auction with donated prizes to include designer sunglasses, tickets to the NYC Football Club, the Giants, Mets and Yankees as well as gift certificates from Arthur Weeks Jewelers and Skinchanted Spa. Food trucks featuring delicious fare from local restaurants will also be on hand.

There are 80 trees in the ground at the riverfront, from Peekskill landing all the way down to China Pier.

Another 20 will be planted near Charles Point Marina in the fall, and once they are, the 100 donated trees will represent an $80,000 gift from the Rotary Club of Peekskill and will commemorate Peekskill Rotary’s 100-year anniversary in 2019.

Rotary President Chappy Manzer, owner of Peekskill-based Manzer's Landscape Design & Development, Inc., secured the trees wholesale and planted them at no cost. Once the remaining 20 plants are in the ground, the city will take full ownership of them from the Rotary.

“The long-term goal is to bring a multi-week cherry blossom festival to Peekskill. We want something similar to what goes on in Washington, DC and in Belleville, New Jersey.

“This year we are working with Peekskill schools,” Manzer said. “Next year, we hope to work with Peekskill and Hen Hud or Peekskill and Walter Panas. After that, maybe Peekskill and Putnam Valley or Yorktown. We want to involve the entire region.”

In fact, ,“schools are already pitching in, working with the Rotary to hold a poster contest among the students. The winner will see his or her painting on festival shirts and posters.

The event will also feature a children’s book drive for the Peekskill Rotary Golden Bookshelves project which aims to increase literacy skills in Peekskill among pre-school and school age children. Please bring new or gently used books for newborns through age 12 to our book drive.

"The riverfront is so nice and adding the cherry trees makes it that much nicer,” Manzer said. “This is our gift to Peekskill and surrounding towns that allows everyone to get out of the house and celebrate the beginning of spring.”

The Rotary Club of Peekskill was chartered 99 years ago. The club has about 90 members representing a cross- section of the Peekskill and Cortlandt communities.

PHOTO/ Rotary Club of Peekskill