New Simmers-Young Park Needed Trees
A workforce of 40 Cub Scouts ages 6-12 from Pack 515 in Winter Haven gathered with siblings, parents and some Boy Scouts from Troop 515 for an early morning service project May 22 at Polk County’s Simmers-Young Park. The new 80-acre park development, which offically opened in February, needed a few trees so the scouts commemorated the centennial anniversary of scouting by planting more than 100 along the shoreline of the pond as you enter the new soccer complex.
Planning for the special event began in October 2009 and was organized as a Centennial Earth Conservation tree planting project. Five magnolia, five Japanese blueberry and 100 cypress trees were planted and tagged with a numbered marker that corresponds to a specific scout who “adopted” the tree. Scouts will continue to care for and monitor their cypress tree’s growth and progress in the coming years. Scout leaders and parks staff adopted some of the larger magnolia and blueberry trees. The trees were supplied by the Polk County Parks and Natural Resources Division in support of the scouting project, which is one of many similar community-service efforts encouraged and welcomed by Parks and Recreation.
Since 1910, the Boy Scouts of America has been the nation’s foremost program of character development and values-based leadership training for youth. The program encourages youth to pursue their special interests, make new friends, develop leadership skills and give back to their community. Polk County Parks and Recreation promotes these same goals of youth development through organized youth sports and is always happy to partner with scouting projects. Learn more about Scouting at www.scouting.org, or through the Pack 515 website at www.pack515whfl.com. If you are a scout leader, and would like to propose a community-service project, please contact Mike Wallace, Polk County Parks and Recreation at 499-2613.
Friends of the Parks Foundation supports and promotes all parks and recreation departments within Polk County, regardless of jurisdiction. For more information, visit our website: www.friendsoftheparks.net.
