Tipp City Foundation and City of Tipp co-host National Arbor Day celebration
On Friday, April 24, the Tipp City Foundation and the City of Tipp City co-hosted a National Arbor Day celebration for the first time.
Tipp City celebrates Arbor Day annually to honor and uphold their Tree City USA status, a title bestowed to them by the Arbor Day Foundation in 1984. “It shows that the city is proactive in caring for trees in town,” said Karen Jackson, President of the Tree Board of Tipp City since 2024.
The city’s annual Arbor Day celebration involves donating tree saplings to each first grader in class at Broadway Elementary School.
There was fear, however, that it wouldn’t be possible in 2026. According to Jackson, the price of saplings increased to $2 per tree this year, and for 200 first graders, the price doubled to $400.
Luckily, the foundation stepped in and used money from the Lucille Millner Trees for Tipp Fund to keep the tradition alive.
“I think it’s important to develop the interest and the enjoyment of planting a tree and seeing it grow at an early age, so I’m so glad,” Jackson said.
Jackson added that the Tree Board secretary, Jenna Bowman, was also relieved to hear that the tradition would continue. Bowman has three children, two of which had already been through first grade at Broadway, so the youngest would be left out of the opportunity.
“They wanted three trees in the back yard, one planted by each of them,” Jackson said.
The Tipp City Foundation celebrates Arbor Day every two years.
The foundation’s biannual celebration is held at the Kyle Park in the Tipp City Foundation Tree Grove and recognizes the foundation’s newest endowment funds. The tree grove began in 2018 as an investment into the community, much like the founders of the endowment funds.
Therefore, the tree grove honors their contribution and acts as a living celebration of the endowment funds. “It sort of gives a visual indicator of how long their fund has been with us and how it has grown,” said Bryan Blake, who has been on the Tipp City Foundation board for three years now.
Blake said Tipp City plants three or four trees each year in the grove with help from Tony Hunt, the Tipp City Public Works Superintendent. The trees are paid for by the Tipp City Foundation, so it only made sense to finally host a ceremony together.
During the ceremony, community members who have started an endowment fund in the past two years will get to choose a grove tree, made up of maples, oaks, lilacs, and linden trees, to place a charm on. The charm bears their endowment fund’s title and the year it started. As of this year, 67 trees wear a charm, representing the 67 endowment funds that make the Tipp City Foundation possible.
Endowment funds are created by community members who want to financially support an issue they care about and trust the Tipp City Foundation to award the funds accordingly. It takes $25,000 to establish an endowment fund, and the grant money awarded is generated by interest earned on the initial donation.
Carrie Robbins, one of the newest fund founders, placed a tag that bears the name of her son, Carson, who passed away from a seizure condition on April 14, 2023, a week before his 18th birthday.
“It was just one of those flukes that our very healthy son was no longer very healthy,” Robbins said.
In his absence, she threw herself into fundraising for the endowment. “I tell his brothers all the time, moms never like to quit being moms…I can still mom them a little bit, but this is the only momming I can do for Carson,” Robbins said.
The fund is named “Live Loud Like Carson: A School Spirit Fund.” The Robbins family wanted to help Tipp City Public Schools make positive connections among students by providing them with funding for activities and projects.
Now, the Robbins host an annual fundraiser on his birthday, April 25th. Since they had to move this year’s fundraiser to April 18 due to Tipp City’s Prom, Robbins said the Arbor Day ceremony landed in the perfect way, right next to his special day.
In her own way, Robbins added, the ceremony has a much deeper connection to her and her son. “I can say I have a pre-Carson life, and a post-what-happened-to-Carson life.” Before Carson, Robbins said she never cared for or noticed trees.
After Carson passed, several trees were planted in his memory. His best friend’s family bought an apple tree, “Because [Carson] would go to their house and eat all their apples,” Robbins shared. So now she has an apple tree in her backyard. There’s also one at Tipp City High School, and since April 24, one in Kyle Park Tree Grove.
“I can’t tell you why that matters… If he were just living a typical life, it wouldn’t feel that way, but when he’s not here, I just think people should remember him,” Robbins said. It is especially comforting to have a tree dedicated in Kyle Park, a place where he spent so much of his childhood, Robbins added. “The stories that people will tell because he’s still at the forefront of their mind, and the good memories… It’s just very helpful with a grieving heart to have that all still there,” she said.
National Arbor Day encourages the planting and growth of trees for many reasons, be it their environmental, mental, or health benefits. Trees hold memories from the past, meaning in the present, and potential for the future, especially in a Tree City USA that celebrates Arbor Day.
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