Tech makes Arbor Day special on campus

BY JOHN DAVIS
AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

For the past four years, Texas Tech has planted a tradition in the community with their annual Arbor Day celebration.

This year, some 51 trees, 872 shrubs, 6,300 groundcover plants and 17,300 annual flowers found a new home on the campus, according to organizers.

The event ran on April 26 at Memorial Circle on Texas Tech Campus.

Janet Schmidly, chairwoman for Campus Caregivers, said that she's glad that the tradition still is kept by Tech students.

''I'm just so pleased that the Texas Tech family has embraced the renewal of the Arbor Day tradition,'' Schmidly said. ''It has made a difference in the past and it will continue to make a difference in the future.''

Also, she said, the planting efforts have made a positive impression on people visiting the campus for the first time or on a return visit.

''When Dave and I meet people that haven't been here on campus for a while, they are blown away by the beauty of the campus."

The first Arbor Day celebrations at Tech were in 1938.

The tradition was replanted in 1999 by Debbie Montford, former Campus Caregivers chairwoman and wife of former Chancellor John T. Montford.

Though rain postponed this year's planting, more than 1,100 students from different campus groups helped to plant about 30,000 plants in 2001.