By MADDY VITALE
Sea Isle City is gearing up for a special Arbor Day celebration, where a late member of the community will be remembered for her years of service helping the environment with the dedication of a seedling in her honor – a descendant of the historic Salem oak tree.
On Friday, April 28, at noon, members of the city’s Beautification Committee, Environmental Commission, Garden Club, Green Team, and Historical Society will join with the community in the public garden near 70th Street and Landis Avenue. There, a white oak tree seedling will be dedicated to longtime volunteer Theresa Barry.
Barry, who passed away in 2011, lived with her husband, David, in Sea Isle since 1991. During her time in the community, she worked for the city’s Recreation Office, participated in several environmental programs and was a beachcombing tour guide. She was also active in St. Joseph’s Catholic Church as a Eucharistic minister and was a member of the Catholic Daughters, according to her obituary.
Mike McHale, a former Sea Isle mayor who is a member of the Environmental Commission and has presided over the Arbor Day celebrations, described Barry as being a kind person who was very involved in her community.
“Theresa was a good person and very dedicated to the Garden Club and the Environmental Club,” McHale said in an interview Friday. “She was always heavily involved. She was one of those volunteers who always was ready to help.”
The first Arbor Day was founded in 1872 in Nebraska by J. Sterling Morton, a newspaper editor who served as President Grover Cleveland’s Secretary of Agriculture. On the first Arbor Day on April 10, 1872, an estimated one million trees were planted in Nebraska.
Former Sea Isle Mayor Mike McHale, a member of the Environmental Commission, speaks during the 2021 Arbor Day ceremony.
Each year, Sea Isle makes sure to host a memorable celebration to emphasize and educate the public on the importance of trees. What makes this year’s Arbor Day event even more memorable than perhaps others before, is that the seedling for Theresa Barry’s tree is coming from a more than 500-year-old tree -- the great Salem oak of South Jersey.
In 2019, the tree crashed to the ground and died in Salem city. Before it fell, the state Department of Environmental Protection gathered the tree’s acorns and planted one for each municipality in New Jersey. The seedlings were grown in a greenhouse until they were large enough to be planted, according to a city news release.
McHale said that years ago, a cherry tree seedling was planted in Sea Isle in Barry’s honor.
“There was a little monument that explains the years she worked, and a tree dedicated to her. It was a cherry tree, and it was not in good shape,” McHale said of the tree’s recent condition. “We thought we should replace it.”
He added that there are two other women who the city has recognized in the past with cherry tree plantings. And like Theresa Barry’s cherry tree, the other two trees were not doing well, either.
“Our Public Works has taken them out and moved the location over a bit to change the soil,” McHale said, adding that there would be replacements of those trees at a later date.
McHale also said that the city’s Department of Public Works has done an amazing job with plantings throughout town. One member, in particular, has worked extremely hard to make sure the city looks beautiful and will be honored during the ceremony.
In addition to the Salem oak dedication, the celebration will feature guest speakers and the distribution of free tree seedlings, including bur oak and chestnut oak trees, which local property owners can plant in their home gardens.
For more information about Sea Isle City’s 2023 Arbor Day Celebration, call Mike McHale at 609-236-3331.
From left, Beautification Committee member Alan Nesensohn and Environmental Commission member Dudley McGinty hand out some of the tree seedlings to Sea Isle resident Beth Pearce in 2022.
