In celebration of Arbor Day, third-graders from Marlton Elementary School (MES) recently gave attendees at the Evesham Arbor Day Ceremony on Friday, April 24, a “tree-t.”
After Mayor Randy Brown and Deputy Mayor Robert DiEnna welcomed the students and other attendees to the ceremony, the students took over — performing skits, singing songs, dancing, reading poems, and stumping Mayor Brown with riddles such as: “Why do trees go to the dentist? Because of their root canals.”
“The children are so excited to be here,” said third-grade teacher Carol Suboleski. “Meeting the mayor is like meeting the President to them. They want his autograph!” Suboleski says this is the eighth or ninth year her class has been participating in the Arbor Day Ceremony. Her involvement began when the township asked classes or ecology clubs to volunteer to be a part of the celebration. At the time, Suboleski was the moderator of the MES Ecology Club. Suboleski now brings her third-grade class annually as it promotes a love of nature and connects nicely with the district Science curriculum. She feels her students benefit from attending the ceremony. “We have been reading books about the environment. The students are excited to help raise awareness about the importance of trees,” Suboleski said.
Another riddle for Brown: “How can you tell if a tree is a Dogwood? By its bark.” The mayor got that one correct.
In addition to the tree-themed skits, the students sang “Let’s Plant a Tree,” and took the
“Kids For Saving the Earth” pledge, which asks each child to promise to be a defender of the planet by doing everything they can to protect the Earth. They also led an audience sing-a-long that said the “birds and the trees are in our hands.”
Brown thanked the students for being “partners” with the township and celebrating Arbor Day. He also explained that although the township had to knock down some trees to build the new baseball complex, it would be planting about 200 more trees, bushes, and plants over the next two or three years to replace them.
The students got a real kick out of their last riddle for the Mayor: “What did the little tree say to the big tree? Leaf me alone.”
