The Whitewater Parks and Recreation Department and the Whitewater Urban Forestry Commission have announced that they will jointly be participating in an Arbor Day celebration, which will include a dedication of the Generac Welcome and Education Center. The pavilion was recently erected as part of an arboretum project in the city’s Starin Park.
The dedication ceremony will be held in the park, 504 W. Starin Rd., Friday, April 28, at 10 a.m.
The ceremony will include remarks offered by several city officials, including City Manager John Weidl, Whitewater Urban Forestry Commissioner Jim Nies, the city’s Parks and Recreation Department Director Eric Boettcher, as well as a representative from Generac Power Systems, the organization after which the structure is named. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held around 10:20 a.m.
Refreshments will be offered during the event, according to information released by city officials.
As stated within the release, Starin Park’s Generac Welcome and Education Center pavilion provides nearly 300 square feet of covered outdoor space in which workshops and classroom activities can be held.
“The educational programs will connect youth to nature and teach the fundamentals of stewardship and ecology,” the release noted.
“The new Generac Welcome and Education Center will increasingly become the gateway to the Arboretum at Starin Park. Individual visits and a variety of educational activities will all start here,” Nies was quoted as saying in the release.
Generac Power Systems provided grant funds to purchase materials to build the structure, along with employee volunteers to help erect it in the park, the release noted.
Generac employee volunteers included Adam Cook, Paul Taylor and Joel Hirschfeld, according to information provided by the company.
“In many ways, trees are infrastructure too. They have a life cycle, they have maintenance and replacement cost, and they are critical to the health of any community,” Weidl started within the release.
According to the release, the arboretum project in Starin Park has been an ongoing undertaking by the Whitewater Urban Forestry Commission, which is a permanent subcommittee of the Whitewater Parks and Recreation Department. The project works to restore the beauty, health and diversity of the woodlands in Starin Park, while enhancing its role as a vital natural sanctuary and educational space.
Whitewater residents Rick Fassl, at left, and Al Stanek, at right, hold an upright piece of a pavilion structure. The pavilion was recently under construction in Whitewater’s Starin Park. A dedication ceremony for the project, dubbed the “Generac Welcome and Education Center,” will be held Friday.
A team assembles to build the Generac Welcome and Education Center in Starin Park. They are: Jeanine Fassl, from left, Generac employee volunteer Adam Cook, Al Stanek, Rick Fassl, Dave Linton, Generac employee volunteer Paul Taylor, Whitewater Urban Forestry Commissioner Jim Nies, Generac employee volunteer Joel Hirschfeld, then-Whitewater Common Council member Carol McCormick, Whitewater Parks and Recreation Director Eric Boettcher, and Sherry Stanek.
The completed Generac Welcome and Education Center stands in Starin Park. A dedication of the space, along with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, will be held Friday.
Contributed photos.
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