A new elm is taking root outside Dover Intermediate School, and the students who watched it go into the ground last Friday will get to walk past it every year until they're adults.
The City of Westlake celebrated Arbor Day on Friday, May 8 with its annual ceremony at Dover Center Intermediate, gathering students for a tree planting that doubled as a history lesson. This year's tree — a Victory Elm — was planted in tribute to the Liberty Tree, the original elm that stood in Boston and became the rallying point for colonists protesting British rule in the years leading up to the American Revolution. Planted in 1646, the Liberty Tree was nearly 130 years old when, during the Siege of Boston in August 1775,
British Loyalist forces cut it down and burned it for firewood. It was meant to be the end of a symbol. Instead, towns and cities across the thirteen colonies designated their own Liberty Trees, and the symbol outlived the empire that tried to kill it. With America preparing to mark its 250th birthday in 2026, communities across the country are planting new elms in its memory — and Westlake is now one of them.
The ceremony is organized each year by the Westlake Service Department, which coordinates the event and plants the tree, led on site by Urban Forestry Manager Stan Barnard. The Westlake Tree Commission spoke at the ceremony and presented this year's poster contest winners — five Dover Intermediate students whose artwork the Commission hand-picked from across the school. Each winner has been recognized with their own proclaimed day in the City of Westlake, running consecutively this week:
Fiona Levet
Vivian Lang
Luke Williamson
Daniel Abdah
Isabelle Kaplafka
Each student received a signed proclamation from the City declaring their day, recognizing their creativity and their part in connecting Westlake's youngest residents to the trees that shape our community.
Arbor Day at Dover Center has become one of the city's quieter traditions — no parade, no speeches longer than they need to be, just a hole in the ground and a sapling. In a hundred years, if the elm is doing its job, someone will be standing in its shade.