1st Annual Arbor Day

The trees, hillsides, country roads and good neighbors are what brought all of us to Westlake.

We chose to live here and have worked side by side to stay united. We are proud to be Westlake citizens. We, like the trees in Westlake, are a symbol of strength, standing tall, and we also, like the trees, are not living secluded lives from our surroundings. Westlake is growing. Preserving, yet sharing the country feeling that we have come to enjoy and expect is a priority.

Westlake's Board of Aldermen approved the Resolution creating the Westlake Tree City USA Advisory Committee on the 28th day of February, 2000. The Resolution outlined the duties and responsibilities for the committee as specified by the Tree City USA Standards. Seeking citizens who were interested in volunteering to work with Tree City USA, an announcement was made on our Town's web site: http://www.westlake-tx.org/ as well as in the area newspapers. The Advisory Committee is comprised of four adult residents, one youth, and the Town's landscape architect. Since Westlake already had a very effective Tree Ordinance in place (which is one of the requirements to be recognized as a Tree City USA city), the committee's first plan of action was to consider a budget and begin educating our citizens about Tree City USA, our native trees, and planning Westlake's first ever Arbor Day for the fall of 2000.

What would help the citizens identify native trees in our community and provide a means for combining their knowledge into a community effort? The committee decided to provide everything needed to each family so that they could contribute a hand-embroidered leaf to make a Heritage Quilt. Each family received a quilt packet including: an instruction booklet, muslin, green fabric with wonder under (an adhesive ironed to the back), a leaf pattern to trace, embroidery thread, a prethreaded needle, and an embroidery hoop. The packet also included a flyer introducing the Advisory Committee, giving instructions about when the quilt piece was due, mentioning the Arbor Day to come, and requesting "tree stories" to be sent in. We also enclosed Keep A Great Thing Growing AMERICA Tree City USA a National Arbor Day Foundation pamphlet.

Neighbors helped neighbors as men and women gathered to learn how to embroidery. Neighbors helped out those who had been sick and were unable to complete their own piece by finishing it for them. Fifty-four of the 85 families contributed a quilt piece for Westlake's Heirloom Quilt. The Advisory Committee pieced all of the squares together, displaying it at the Aldermen, Planning and Zoning, and Consultant meetings. People began purchasing $1 raffle tickets immediately. The Heritage Quilt was on display at the Arbor Day Celebration. Folks "buzzed" around it as if it were honey to bees. The community's Tree Heritage Quilt was to be on display at the Town Hall until it was raffled off at the Town's Tree City USA's Christmas Celebration in December.