Officials from Keep Evansville Beautiful, the Department of Urban Forestry, Vectren and Mayor Lloyd Winnecke will join together at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, April 27, for the Arbor Day Celebration at 10^th and Vine streets.  

The event will feature the winners of the Vectren/Keep Evansville Beautiful Third Grade Arbor Day Essay Contest.  This was the fourteenth year for the essay contest, which drew entries from schools across the Evansville region. The winners of this year’s contest are: first place, Jade Butze from Cynthia Heights Elementary School; second place, Graham Austin from St. Benedict Cathedral School, and third place, Ashlynn Durham Pugh from Highland Elementary school.

Participants will be celebrating the planting of 875 trees in the city in 2017, helping to maintain their goal of planting two trees for each one the city removes. Since the establishment of the Evansville urban forestry program in 2001, the city has exceeded this goal by planting three trees for each one removed. 

The city has planted over 200 trees in 2018, as well as placing over 500 trees in the city tree nursery for future public plantings with the help of Vectren, Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation, and donations from Vectren, City Cemeteries, Indiana State Nursery on behalf of Indiana State Senator Jim Tomes (District 49), Anthony Piper and Richard Tredway.

For questions, please contact Julie Welch at Keep Evansville Beautiful by phone (812) 425-4461, or email: jwelch@keepevansvillebeautiful.org, or call Shawn Dickerson, Department of Urban Forestry, at (812) 436-5752.