Garden Club commemorates Helen Walton
Posted on Wednesday, March 26, 2008
BENTONVILLE - Helen R. Walton's legacy was shared and celebrated at the Bentonville Public Library on Tuesday afternoon, when the Bentonville Garden Club commemorated Arbor Day.
Walton, who was an active member of the Bentonville Garden Club, died April 19, 2007.
"Helen Walton felt the need to preserve the nature of trees in our community," said Michelle Stevens, director of the Helen R. Walton Children's Enrichment Center. "She was certainly ahead of her time and really had the forethought for the future of this community."
"(Walton ) had such a vision of nature and what it could do for us," Garden Club president Charlene McGaugh said.
To commemorate Walton's memory, the Garden Club will plant an American holly in her honor at the children's center. Because of renovations currently being completed at the center, the tree will be planted at a later date.
When it is planted, though, the tree will be used as an educational tool for children at the center. A classroom of 16 3-year-olds has already adopted the tree and will care for it in the year after it is planted.
Arbor Day was begun by J. Sterling Morton in 1872 as a day to encourage tree planting and care. National Arbor Day is celebrated on the last Friday in April, but each state has its own Arbor Day, and Mayor Bob McCaslin proclaimed Tuesday as Arbor Day in Bentonville.
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