The Arboretum Committee thought this anniversary year was going to be different but we didn’t expect it to be this different! There were plans for big events and programming to match but with the uncertainty of COVID-19 we just don’t know. What we do know is this: the arboretum on the church’s property is visited by more people than ever before, it is used for research by arboreta internationally because of data shared electronically due to our membership in organizations like Botanical Gardens Conservation International, its volunteers are invited to symposiums sponsored by international dignataries with lectures by leaders in the field of horticulture and enviromental science, and though we are small in size and budget, we’ve been added to a map of internationally accredited aboreta.

We’ve done some work on marketing ourselves as more than a church arboretum. We are that, and more. We embrace our role today in knowing that making the arboretum more is promoting both the church and the seventh principle. People who never come through the doors will be learning about the seventh principle when they take our tours, maybe not through direct mention of the principle but through action. It was with this in mind that the Arboretum Committee voted to offcially change the name of the arboretum to The Arboretum at UUCCH. The Board of Trustees approved of name and we are unveiling it now with our new logo, which is based on the Church’s font and our own Scarlet Oak Alle. I hope you are as excited as we all are to be a part of the growth of the arboretum Ken Arnold started 49 years ago, with any luck it will be here for another fifty!