By Greg Ellison

(April 30, 2020) After two decades of commemorating Arbor Day with a memorial tree-planting ceremony, the Ocean Pines Garden Club was honored earlier this month with a PLANT Award from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

After taking note of the annual accolade on the DNR website in December, Ocean Pines Garden Club member Anita Roberts realized the group’s annual Arbor Day celebration warranted consideration.

“The Garden Club has been doing this for 20 years,” she said. “We plant a tree in memory of people who are either Ocean Pines residents or family of … residents who have passed away the previous year.”

The annual PLANT Awards are issued by the Maryland Urban and Community Forestry Committee of the Maryland Forestry Boards through DNR in four levels: bronze, silver, gold and green.

Roberts said the OP Garden Club took home a 2019 bronze award for one project, with either include Arbor Day or Earth Day qualifying for inclusion.

“During the ceremony, the friends and family of the person who has passed away attend,” she said. “We announce the name, a bell is rung and then they shovel some dirt in the hole.”

Roberts said the planting ceremony includes musical interludes provided by either the Delmarva Chorus or the Pine Tones Chorus.

“We usually have bagpipes there,” she said. “We finish the celebration with luncheon at the Yacht Club and hold a 50/50 raffle with half donated to the Arbor Day Foundation.”

Roberts said the local Arbor Day ceremony is traditionally held on the second Thursday in April and is produced in conjunction with Kelly Romanowski from Ocean Pines Public Works.

“We’ve talked with Kelly about getting name plates for each tree so we that we can name the trees and people will know [for whom] each tree has been planted,” she said.

Roberts said the covid-19 pandemic prevented the Garden Club from holding the Arbor Day ceremony this month.

“Our plans are on hold for right now,” she said.

Despite that setback, the Garden Club still plans to work with Public Works to maintain the location.

“The Garden Club sponsors [Pintail Park], so in spring, summer and fall we weed, water plants or trees and clean up the park,” she said.

Roberts said the Garden Club, which has roughly five-dozen members, performs an array of aesthetical upgrades throughout the year, including planting flowers at the

Photo courtesy: Gail Philippi
Bill and Mary Wentworth place soil on a willow tree planted during the Ocean Pines Garden Club’s 2019 Arbor Day Memorial Ceremony held in Pintail Park.

in May and spreading holiday cheer after Thanksgiving.

“One of our biggest efforts, the Monday after Thanksgiving, we decorate Ocean Pines for Christmas,” she said. “We do all the decorations that are up on [Ocean] Parkway.”

Roberts said although the Arbor Day ceremony is cancelled this month, plans are percolating for a potential event later this year, while evidence of past efforts remains rooted.

“I encourage people to go and visit Pintail Park and to see how the trees have been planted and how we have honored Arbor Day in the past,” she said. “We hope to celebrate Arbor Day sometime in the near future.”