By John Makley
Thank you to all those that donated to my son’s cause for his Eagle Service Project and help replace trees in Sagamore Hills Park. Donations thru GoFundMe.com, direct donations, and a Car Wash earned about $2000.00. He was able to meet his goal and purchase all 7 trees plus dirt, mulch, fertilizer, supplies, and rent the needed tools. His team of family, friends, and scouts met up last weekend and spent all day Saturday planting seven Red Maples between the ball fields and around the concession building. The township trustees and their service manager agreed they wanted to concentrate the new trees around the ball fields. The day was a perfect day to work in the park. The trees are between 9′ to 11′ tall, larger than we expected. A big thanks to the service team at Sagamore Hills Park for prepping the area for us. That saved us a lot of work. My son hopes the community enjoys the trees. It will take a year or so for them to really acclimate to their new home. Gotta get their roots going to take hold. Once established the autumn colors will be spectacular. We also noticed that the Bush family, or I believe the Girl Scouts, had also planted a tree in the same area to honor their daughter Sarah Bush. It appears that tree may also be a Red Maple so it will accent and blend in with the new trees wonderfully. We had enough extra mulch that we added some around the base of her tree as well. Thanks to all the volunteers that came out on Saturday. Every one of them busted butt to get this done. Their hard work is greatly appreciated. Signed. A Proud Dad.