Sally Faith Dorfman explained the significance of the tree.
The 4th-graders read poems they had written about trees.
The kindergartner children made paper trees for Earth Day.
School and local government officials along with dozens of elementary school students were on hand Friday afternoon for the dedication of a cherry tree planted at the Cornwall-on-Hudson elementary school (COHES).
Cornwall resident Sally Faith Dorfman organized the ceremony in memory of her mother, who had urged her family to plant trees all over town. The tree was dedicated in the memory of the 19 youngsters who were killed in the domestic terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City in 1995.
“My mother kept saying, ‘Plant a tree and remember those children,’” Dorfman recounted to the students. Dorfman said that shortly after her mother died, in 1996, the family planted two weeping cherry trees, one a COHES and one at Willow Avenue elementary. The tree at COHES didn’t survive and the new tree replaces that one.
The afternoon kindergarteners came out for the ceremony carrying construction paper trees they had made. The third- and fourth-grade classes were present as well and several of the fourth-graders read short poems they had written about trees.
Also present were school prinicipal Kenneth Schmidt, school district superintendent Timothy Rehm, village mayor Joseph Gross and trustee Barbara Gosda, along with town deputy supervisor and trustee Mary Beth Green Krafft.
Sally Faith Dorfman also invites the public to celebrate Arbor Day this Thursday at the American Legion Hall in the town park where an allee of maple trees has been planted.
