Published May 19. 2026 03:24PM<\/p>\n
On April 24 the Bethlehem Garden Club recognized Arbor Day and celebrated the United States\u2019 250th anniversary with the planting of a native species Eastern Red Bud tree along East Church Street at City Hall.<\/p>\n
Several city workers, members of the Bethlehem Garden Club and others were present to participate. The city parks maintenance workers had planted the roughly 8\u2019 tall tree before the ceremony.<\/p>\n
Garden Club president Rosanne Cilente, the Garden Club\u2019s tree planting chair Sharon Smith, and city forester Olivia Teel each spoke to those assembled.<\/p>\n
Smith opened noting the \u201cimportance of trees to our city, environment and future.\u201d \u201cThis is our gift to the City of Bethlehem,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n
Cilente said that trees play a vital role in sustaining our planet. \u201cThey provide food and shelter for wildlife and shade for our homes,\u201d said Cilente who quoted an old Chinese proverb: \u201cThe best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teel informed those in attendance that updates to the city\u2019s Urban Forestry Master Plan were currently underway.<\/p>\n
After speaking the three added symbolic shovel fulls of soil to the planting before a marker was placed at the base of the tree and city parks workers completed the installation by adding mulch and support posts.<\/p>\n
Teel said the city was looking to plant a second tree on its own a short distance from the Arbor Day planting, and would probably plant a second Eastern Red Bud to provide a colorful impact when both trees would bloom in the spring.<\/p>\n
Press photos by Dana GrubbCity parks workers planted the Arbor Day tree for the dedication.<\/p>\n
Bethlehem Garden Club president Rosanne Cilente speaks to attendees at the planting.<\/p>\n
Sharon Smith, Olivia Teel and Rosanne Cilente shovel topsoil into place around the tree.<\/p>\n
Sharon Smith, Arbor Day planting chairperson, Rosanne Cilente, president of the Bethlehem Garden Club, and city forester Olivia Teel pose in front of the completed planting.<\/p>\n
A commemorative marker was installed at the foot of the tree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published May 19. 2026 03:24PM On April 24 the Bethlehem Garden Club recognized Arbor Day and celebrated the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-198321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}