Tree plantings recognize Arbor Week

Club celebrates 80th anniversary

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

DOVER-FOXCROFT — For the fourth year in a row, the town of Dover-Foxcroft has recognized Arbor Week (May 15-20) with the planting of a tree in the community. This year a hydrangea tree was placed at the Marion Doore Park on Pleasant Street during a May 18 ceremony. A second hydrangea tree was planted in recognition of the 80th anniversary of the Dover-Foxcroft-based GFWC/Miosac Club — the club maintains the green space for the community — and 125th anniversary of the national General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC).

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

ARBOR WEEK AND ANNIVERSARY TREES — A pair of hydrangea trees have been planted at the Marion Doore Park in Dover-Foxcroft, in recognition of Arbor Week as well as the 80th anniversary of the local GFWC/Miosac Club and the 125th anniversary of the national General Federation of Women’s Clubs. Town officials and club members took part in a tree planting ceremony on May 18 at the Marion Doore Park on Pleasant Street, which is maintained as a public green space by the GFWC/Miosac Club.

“It’s really important to have these spaces in our community,” Town Manager Jack Clukey said. “It’s a quiet place where you can just relax,” he said, saying the town is indebted to the GFWC/Miosac Club for its work at the Marion Doore Park.

Clukey said the last four years trees have been planted across town — with the SeDoMoCha School, Kiwanis Park and Foxcroft Academy being the previous recipients — to ensure Dover-Foxcroft lives up to its designation as a Tree City USA Community by the Arbor Day Foundation, an honor bestowed upon towns that demonstrate excellence in forestry management. Since earning the recognition four years ago, the town has made an effort to plant new trees, replace aging ones and encourage other organizations to plant in order to help raise awareness about forestry and beautify the community.

The town manager told the ceremony participants, which included Selectpersons Gail D’Agostino and Steve Grammont and a dozen GFWC/Miosac Club members, they have probably seen silver tags on various trees around Dover-Foxcroft. Clukey said the tags are part of a Project Canopy inventory, but “we are losing trees faster than we are gaining trees.”

He said Arbor Week provides an opportunity to help remedy the problem, with the plantings and making the public aware. Clukey said Project Canopy funds have provided for plantings in town as well as the placement of potted trees along East Main Street for the spring and summer.

Clukey said the town is interested in hearing ideas from the public pertaining to community greens spaces. “We are excited to work on that,” he said.

The town’s hydrangea tree was decorated with red, white and blue ribbons, the colors of the GFWC, and the second new tree for the Marion Doore Park had the same colored ornaments. The GFWC/Miosac Club also provided a marker for the park, engraved with General Federation of Women’s Club (1890-2015).

Rheba Michaud of the GFWC/Miosac Club explained the Marion Doore Park namesake was a teacher at the former Pleasant Street School from 1942 to 1975. Michaud said the school closed in 1975 and the building was razed with the space becoming a playground. The property later became a park, dedicated on June 25, 2001.

GFWC/Miosac Club President Vicki Moschella said the organization has reached the 80-year milestone and the club name stands for modern ideals of service and culture. “Later today our club’s members will celebrate our 80th anniversary with a banquet,” Moschella said.

“It is an honor now to officially dedicate the hydrangea tree and marker to the 125th anniversary of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs,” she said.