Rebecca Najera
Editor-in-Chief
Sunday, March 5, TJC will be hosting an Arbor Day celebration by planting 50 trees across the main campus.
The college will be holding the Arbor Day event in conjunction with the Tyler Trees Committee, Keep Tyler Beautiful and Tyler Parks and Recreation department. The event will begin at noon, where snacks and drinks will be provided. Tables will be set up with educational materials about trees and Arbor Day itself, and then at about 1:00 p.m., the volunteers will be divided into groups where they will be given instructions on how to plant the trees.
“This project is about more than just making the campus look nicer,” said Student Senate President, Daniel Seguin. “If that was the case, we would simply have Grounds plant the trees.”
Seguin played a part in planning this event. Other representatives include the housing department, student life and the facilities and construction department.
“This is about us as students being able to put our thumbprint on something,” said Seguin. “To take ownership in something.”
While some student organizations are going to participate in the planting of the trees, all students are encouraged to volunteer.
“It’s more on the idea of taking pride in your school and leaving a lasting legacy,” said Lauren Tyler, director for student life. “These trees aren’t going to be as big as the ones on Jenkins Lawn for 50 years, but when you come back as an alumni, it’d be cool to say ‘I helped plant that tree on campus.’”
Community members and students from other schools are also invited to take part in the event.
“There’s a lot of community members that are very interested in this effort,” said Tyler. “We’re really even inviting UT Tyler students and Texas College students to come on campus as well to hopefully get that bond going to get that [idea] that we’re going to keep Tyler Beautiful.”
Director of Public Affairs and Media Relations, Rebecca Sanders, believes that this event could grow into a more sustainable program.
“We’d love for people to take part in Arbor Day and just really get in them a sense of pride about the campus,” said Sanders.
Sanders feel that if students take part in this event, they’ll possibly be motivated to do more for the campus.
“Hopefully doing something like this is going to boost their desire to have that pride in the campus, and then along with that, picking up trash, beautification of some of the gardens,” said Sanders. “We’ve got some beautiful areas in our campus. What if a student organization decided [they] were going to adopt [an] area? [That they were] going to adopt [a] part of the campus to keep it clean?”
Mark Gartman, Associate Director for Facilities and Construction is excited for the event.
“This could lead into a whole bunch of things. This is everybody’s effort,” said Gartman. “There is a bigger endeavor that underlies all of this, and that’s to keep TJC beautiful. I love this campus, you’re the reason I’m here. It’s your campus. We own it. We’re here. This is our campus.”
