Tree plantings around Aurora on Friday gave the city a chance to celebrate Arbor Day while also doing something worthwhile for the environment, city officials said.

The tree plantings included partnerships with the Fox Valley Park District, West Aurora School District 129 and the Aurora Tree Board.

A fourth sponsor helped kick off the day of celebration as ComEd joined in with the city at 9 a.m. Friday for a tree planting event at West Aurora District 129’s Hill Elementary School at 724 Pennsylvania Ave. in Aurora.

City officials said there is a concerted effort each year to visit various sites and conduct tree plantings in Aurora on Arbor Day.

“Each year, the city partners with the local school district and travels around the different places planting trees on school grounds as kind of a tribute to Arbor Day but also the seeds of growth – literally,” said Clayton Muhammad, chief communications and equity officer for the city of Aurora. “We like to focus on youth and the importance of trees and watch kids throw some dirt on some of them so they can literally watch the trees grow during their years at the elementary school.

“Those kindergartners there, five or six years from now when they leave, that tree is going to be exponentially bigger,” Muhammad added. “It’s kind of great to do it at the elementary level and then at a middle school in the afternoon.”

The planting at Hill Elementary School was the first of three Arbor Day events planned in the city on Friday, which also included scheduled plantings at Jefferson Middle School at 1151 Plum St. in Aurora and at Lincoln Park in the city.

Muhammad said the city was partnering with ComEd during the school events with the company bringing “out their bucket trucks and their tree materials” to show off the importance of trees in their industry “and how important it is to have arborists when you’re talking about feeding electricity to a community.”

“Arborists are key to that and so they do their education piece as well,” he said. “It’s extremely important we educate kids about this as we continue to go through an environment crisis throughout the world. The sooner we can educate people on the importance of climate and environmental issues, the better we’ll be in the long run. This is a critical, important time. You never know when you plant those seeds – one of these children could be our next arborist, our next environmentalist.”

Nick Day, vegetation program manager for ComEd, was on-site with a crew at Hill Elementary School who were set to show off their tree bucket apparatus as well as a drone they use in helping to deal with tree branches and power lines.

“We hope with the kids today, just like anything in education, if you start kids early learning about the importance of trees and the environment, it gets imbedded into them long-term and into their adulthood,” he said. “Early education is key and my goal is to educate people about the importance of trees so they know it at a young age.”

Three classes were in attendance Friday morning at the event outside Hill Elementary as city crews loaded piles of dirt and shovels around two trees that awaited planting.

Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin spoke at the event before quizzing students on a number of tree-related questions and recalled the tree planting and naming of the tree in his honor at the school almost eight years ago.

“This is a full circle moment. In my first couple months as mayor, we came out here and planted a tree on Arbor Day and now we’re back here at the same spot and planting another tree,” he said.

Irvin’s term as mayor ends in May, when Mayor-elect John Laesch will take the reins at Aurora City Hall. Laesch defeated Irvin in the Aurora mayoral election on April 1.

“This is about the future,” Irvin said at the ceremony at the school Friday morning. “This is about leaving a legacy and I believe planting these trees that will last for 100 years. That’s a great legacy for future generations to come and see.”

Hill Elementary School Principal Beth Smith, who said she is currently in her sixth year, said the time spent Friday planting trees was worthwhile.

“It sounds cliche, but our kids are the future, and if they don’t learn how much trees and nature provide for us as they grow up we’re not going to be able to continue the beautiful ecosystems that we have,” Smith said. “We can incorporate education and experience and we teach them as much as we can in class about the importance of trees and nature, but for them to be able to see it and live it is so much more powerful.”

David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.