By KARI BLURTON
Hays Post

In honor of National Arbor Day, members from the Hays Beautification Committee have been delivering redbud saplings to every fifth-grader in Hays this week, an annual tradition leaving Hays with a good supply of redbuds throughout the city.

Brenda Stecklein, a fifth-grade teacher at Holy Family Elementary watched her students receive their trees Wednesday and remembered when her own daughter, now a high school junior, received hers.

“We still have it. It’s beautiful,” Stecklein said. “We still remember when she got it and still talk about it. … It is kind of like the tree has grown as she has.”

HBC member Carol Heiman delivered the trees at Holy family Wednesday. She said it’s an event she always enjoys.

Heiman told the students the trees do not require much water (about a gallon a week) and encouraged the students to plant the trees and take care of them themselves.

“They add so much beauty,” she said, saying it’s a chance for children to get first-hand experience on “how important it is to have trees and plants in the ecology.”

Hays director of parks and ex-officio member of the HBC Jeff Boyle says the group has been giving away the redbuds for at least 20 years.