The first time Arbor Day was celebrated in the United States was back in 1872. As settlers began to migrate to the west from the North and the South seeking new opportunities, people missed the presence of trees around them. Not only did the trees help agriculturally, but they also provided shade on hot days to protect people from the heat.
To counter this, J. Sterling Morton proposed the idea of an Arbor Day, where people would be encouraged to plant trees and celebrate nature. On that first Arbor Day on April 10th, 1872, it is believed that roughly one million trees were planted in Kansas alone.
Fast forward to now, and Arbor Day has become a tradition not just in the United States, but in countries all over the world. At AFS, it has become a longstanding tradition, dating back far into our school’s history.
Every celebration is special because each different group of people brings something new to be shared, whether that be a new poem, song, dance, or something else. Because of this, the iterations each year have been different, even if they only had small changes. To find out more about these changes (and what has stayed the same), I spoke to Upper School History teacher Rusty Regalbuto and Miranda Shandell ‘25 to hear what they thought about Arbor Day.
How many years have you been at AFS?
Regalbuto: Thirty one years.
Shandell: I joined when I was a year and a half, in 2008, so… 17 years.
What is your favorite part about Arbor Day?
Regalbuto: I like the choral moments. …I enjoy the seniors walking in with their pages. I think it’s a beautiful ceremony. They dress up, they look lovely, they have their first grade pages, and it’s part of that lovely tradition that we have and they’ll reunite with them at graduation.
Shandell: I think it’s just lovely to be outside. It’s (most of the time) on a day that’s a nice day, sometimes it’s not, but it is the celebration of spring, so there’s spring all around you. There’s trees, there’s… the sounds of nature, and it’s sunny. Overall it’s just beautiful to be celebrating nature as a whole community.
In the years that you’ve been here, how has Arbor Day evolved?
Regalbuto: It’s pretty much been the same. You know, the number of speakers may change from year to year in terms of the poetry… but it’s been pretty much the same. The location is the only thing that’s really changed. When I first started, the location was out front across from Tyson House.
Shandell: The only real thing I can think of is the dance that the fourth graders do changed. It was still with the sticks, but it had knee bells and we were kicking [to a] fun beat.… Most of it remains pretty constant.
We’ve always sung the Mayday song… and they’ve always done “Wild Mountain Thyme.” There’s always been the maypoles… poems, the tree planting [to] simple gifts, so it’s been pretty constant as long as I’ve been here.
In addition to the changes that Shandell got to witness while being at AFS for so long, this year she also had the opportunity to read a poem, one of the longstanding traditions within Arbor Day at AFS.
You read a poem [on] Arbor Day. What was the title of the poem and how did you pick it?
Shandell: It’s called “Mindful” by Mary Oliver. I was given a doc full of poems and they were like, “just pick one.” It was a bit overwhelming, but I read through most of them and I just wait[ed] for things that stuck out to me. This particular poem is about finding beauty in the mundane. …I liked it, I liked the message, and I thought the words were beautiful, so that’s why I picked it.
To celebrate the planting that is done on Arbor Day, the current 12th grade and 1st grade classes each plant a tree, marking the end and start of two journeys in the AFS community respectively. Arbor Day is a beautiful tradition, and with each tree that grows, one that will continue to bring new traditions into the AFS community.
