Joy Pike Honored at Cary Arbor Day Celebration

Cary, NC — Under a sunny sky, the Town of Cary celebrated their annual Arbor Day on Saturday, March 21, 2015 by honoring Joy Pike with an Eastern red bud tree to be planted at the Herb Young Community Center in Downtown Cary.

Arbor Day 2015

The festivities took place starting at 11 am in front of the historic Ivey-Ellington-Waddell House on West Chatham Street in Cary. Sarah Justice, the town’s Environmental Outreach Program Coordinator, organizes this annual program, along with several others, to involve citizens and make them aware of efforts to keep Cary green.

Cary is a “Tree City”

Mayor Weinbrecht gave a warm welcome to the crowd as the sun came out just in time for the ceremony. This is the 32nd year that Cary has been designated as a “Tree City” by the Arbor Day Foundation. Four criteria are used to award this distinction, including the town having a:

Public tree ordinance
Board responsible for overseeing trees in Cary
Annual Arbor Day celebration
Forestry program in place

From left: Mayor Weinbrecht, Sarah Justice, Joy Pike and Ed Yerha

The mayor mentioned that there are only about a dozen municipalities that can claim attaining 32 years with this designation.

Spruce Program

The Town of Cary’s Spruce Program, run by Sarah Justice, has used 16,000 volunteers to eliminate trash from our roadways and has been responsible for planting over 13,000 trees. The mayor challenged attendees to participate in the next town-wide litter sweep on April 21, 2015 or to attend Spring Daze, which includes a celebration of Earth Day.

Joy Pike Honored

Ed Yerha, At-Large Town Council member, then welcomed the crowd and read the official Arbor Day proclamation.

After the formalities, Joy Pike, a past Hometown Spirit award winner, and a Heart of Cary Association board member, was introduced and given a plaque to place with the tree to be planted in her honor.

Festivities

The Arbor Day events continued until 2 pm, and the downtown area was alive with spring activities including children’s crafts, refreshments from Belle and information booths from various non-profits involved in green initiatives.

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Story and photos by Lindsey Chester.