Betty Swan Community Arboretum Opening

On July 18, community greening partners, the North Lawndale Greening Committee, Openlands, and NeighborSpace participated in the opening ceremony for the Betty Swan Community Arboretum. The Betty Swan Community Arboretum is a living laboratory in Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood where residents, students, and Treekeepers learn about and practice caring for city trees. This arboretum was previously the Arthington Community Garden created by Betty Swan, a resident leader of the 3800 W. Arthington block. Redesigning the garden into a tree park was the idea of Glenda Daniel, a staff member of Openlands, and Velma Johnson, our hardworking president of the Greening Committee who died unexpectedly in October 2008. Openlands and the North Lawndale Greening Committee met with the community and design students from the Illinois Institute of Technolgy on April 21, 2007 to examine designs and to hear ideas for making the arboretum a teacher education center as well as an outdoor tree museum and park.

The ceremony was attended by North Lawndale residents, members of the North Lawndale Greening Committee, Openlands' Community Greening Director Glenda Daniel and Executive Director Gerald Adelmann, NeighborSpace Executive Director Ben Helphand, the family of Velma Johnson, the family of Betty Swan, the Neighborhood Youth Garden Corp and Crewleaders, Scott Mehaffrey, Landscape Architect for the Mayor's office, Treekeeper Jim DeHorn, Edith Makra, Community Tree Advocate from the Morton Arboretum, Suzanne Malec-McKenna, commissioner of the Department of Environment, and other community greening supporters.

As president of the North Lawndale Greening Committee, I accepted a Morton Arboretum Arbor Day watering can presented by Edith Makra of the Morton Arboretum.