Washingtonville - A favorite project of Mayor Tom Devinko's has been to start a planting of memorial cherry trees along Ahern Boulevard in the Village of Washingtonville. Those who donate the funds for the trees can have a plaque installed in memory of someone particular on their tree if they wish. It's part of a larger plan to expand the existing road into a more traditional "Boulevard" by widening the walkways, thus making it suitable for several people to walk abreast, and possibly even allow skateboarding and scooters at times, and in essence make Ahern even more of the beautiful boulevard that it already is. Since Ahern includes an entrance to Veterans Memorial Park, the historic Brotherhood Winery, Country Kids Food Pantry and L.Vern Allen Event-Playground and Sport sites, and is surrounded by several young family neighborhoods, it is already a long and well used stretch of sidewalk with meaningful village views. For this community to look forward to a long stretch of spectacular cherry blooms every Spring will contribute toward making it one of the enticing walkable community spaces that Washingtonville wants for its future.
First on the scene...these 2 gals helped dad unload the tree from his truck and do some early preparation
Here they come! about 25 Heart of the Hudson Girl Scouts
Enter the Heart of the Hudson Girl Scout Troop, and just WOW! Planting of the first Ahern Boulevard Cherry Tree could not have been a better community building challenge.
Scouts were given pretty pink hand shovels to loosen dirt in the hole, preparing for the tree's placement. Soon this gal and several others gave a little frown and piped up "Where do I get a REAL SHOVEL?" Clearly she knows how to use it.
The Heart of the Hudson Troop was officially adopted as a sponsored group by the Blooming Grove Town Board earlier this year, and has just set a calendar full of meetings that will be held at the Senior Center for the remainder of 2024. We will see many more of their community-building activities in future months, and residents can call either Town or Village Hall to inquire about their child joining the troop. But this was quite the start, and set the flavor of this eager group, which by the way did several fundraisers earlier this year to earn the money for this tree, as well as contributing toward some future projects for the Village of Washingtonville's new Sewell Park.
So, after two of the young ladies came early to help Mayor Devinko and 2 of the dads unloaded the large wrapped tree, set it by a large hole that had been dug the day before by the Village's DPW, and loosened the receiving soil, about 25 young Scouts arrived and spent 40 minutes making the final preparations.
Expecting some "young lady digging", they had been given pretty little pink hand shovels, but this is 2024 and as you can see in the photo above one young lady (and then several others) shouted "Hey, where can I get a REAL shovel". Clearly she knew how to use it, as did the others. They attacked the hole with gusto (which was quite needed since the soil consisted of partly dried clay that had been soaked and dried, and compacted again by the Spring rains). The edges also had many small stones embedded, and the girls wedged as many of them out as they could, to ensure their tree would have healthy soil surrounding it. But the stones were not discarded.
Scouts each took one of the stones used preparing the hole and wrote their name on it, using the stones to circle their tree with a little extra love.
After about 40 minutes of digging and raking, they clapped while standing proudly watching their tree safely being set in place. Next they were given colored markers by their scout leaders so they could each write their name on a stone to be set in a circle around the base as soon as the cherry tree's base was safely packed in. This was also not an easy feat since the wet soil clung to the surrounding land...but their "Scout determination" won the day and by about 5pm the fun challenge was done.
The camaraderie between the girls, and appreciation between them, the mayor, the dad from Sosler's, the dad from Lake Hildegarde and the scout leaders was palpable....it had truly become a community event. The hard work was mingled with lots of bff hugs and giggles and cheers, along with serious faces while making sure each stone reflected its scout. The participating scouts were each given a badge of accomplishment.
Mayor Devinko thanked the trooop for their hard work and fundraising, and helping the village see this important 2024 goal met. He also invited them to return to see their tree over the years, and marvel at its growth....along with their own.... and how beautiful it will be with the others added all along Ahern Boulevard.
It's near the end of cherry blossom season, so the team will be keeping a close eye on this first of the future linear grove next April, to catch and celebrate its first full blossoming birthday as a Heart of the Hudson Cherry Tree.
If you look closely about an inch down from the top, this healthy cherry tree still has two pretty pink blooms. That has to be a good sign!
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