Pledging To Care For Trees And Mother Earth

Children Go Green At The Morton Arboretum Event

LISLE, IL (July 13, 2007) – Forget the shovel, kids. Use a pen to plant a tree.

With the stroke of a pen, children can help make the world greener, healthier, and more beautiful. For the first 1,000 kids who sign an environmental pledge at The Morton Arboretum, Toyota will plant 1,000 trees.

The pledge opportunity begins on Friday, July 27, in the Children’s Garden, where the Arboretum unveils a traveling display of 12 winning posters from the National Arbor Day Foundation poster contest, in a 10 a.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony. In the competition, fifth-graders from all over the country created their best pictorial interpretation of this year’s poster theme: “Trees are Terrific… and forests are too!”

The pledge, on display next to the posters, reads as follows:  "I promise to care for trees, value the Earth, and spend time enjoying nature in my neighborhood and wherever else I may be."

“This pledge will be one more opportunity to engage children in the Arboretum’s mission of encouraging all to plant and protect trees. We think kids will have fun taking the pledge, and parents will no doubt be proud of their children’s commitment and its impact on the environment,” says Katherine Johnson, Arboretum Children’s Garden Manager.

The Arboretum built the four-acre Children’s Garden with beautiful, inviting trees and other plants, to help youngsters connect with nature and appreciate its gifts. The goals of this award-winning destination are to help children learn about trees and nature, grow their curiosity about the natural world, and create future stewards of the environment.

Children’s Garden visitors will be able to see the national winning poster from North Carolina, along with the top two runners-up, from Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, respectively. Also, visitors can see the winning Illinois poster, created by Nic Schwartz of Peoria. All 12 posters will remain on display through August 24.

Joy Morton, who founded The Morton Arboretum in 1922, is the son of Julius Sterling Morton, the founder of Arbor Day. Each April, the Arboretum celebrates this, the oldest environmental holiday, with a tree-planting, and other special events.

The Morton Arboretum is an internationally recognized 1,700-acre outdoor museum with collections of 4,057 kinds of trees, shrubs, and other plants from around the world. The Arboretum's beautiful natural landscapes, gardens, research and education programs, and year-round family activities support its mission – the planting and conservation of trees and other plants for a greener, healthier, and more beautiful world. Conveniently located at I-88 and Rte. 53 in Lisle, Illinois, the Arboretum is open 7 days a week, 365 days a year, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. or sunset, whichever is earlier, Central Time. The Children's Garden is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (CDT) and 9:30 to 4 p.m. (CST). Visit www.mortonarb.org or call 630-968-0074 to learn more.

Media Contact:    Gina Tedesco, 630-725-2103, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Marty Cusack, 630-719-5768, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it