In celebration of the 150th Anniversary of Arbor Day, the Liberty Hill Garden Club challenged all Texas Garden Clubs to plant a tree. The Brownwood Garden Club met the challenge and more as they planted two trees!

When deciding where to plant the trees, it did not take the members long to decide to honor our brave veterans by adding their trees to the Veteran’s Memorial Park where their Blue Star Award flowerbeds were planted in 2019.

The Blue Star Program honors all men and women that serve in the United States Armed Services. This program began with the planting of 8,000 Dogwood trees by the New Jersey Council of Garden Clubs in 1944 as a living memorial to veterans of World War II. In 1945, the National Council of State Garden Clubs (now NGC, Inc.) adopted this program and began a Blue Star Highway system that covers thousands of miles across the Continental United States, Alaska, and Hawaii. Brownwood is proud to be a part of the Blue Star Memorial Highway.

Members of the Brownwood Garden Club would like to thank George Sykes at the Tree Farm who graciously donated the trees and Gilda and Jack Stanford for delivering the trees to the park. Also, a thank you goes to both Wanda Pylant, Club VP, and Harold Steiber, President of the Memorial, for coordinating the project. And, finally, thanks to the members who participated in this worthy project.