Lions Club to host tree planting ceremony

The Concordia Lions Club will host the 2021 tree planting ceremony in Pleasant Hill Cemetery on November 4 at 11 a.m. and the public is invited to attend.
The ceremony will include the American Legion Color Guard, Lion Jon Strowig playing Taps, a prayer, Lion Bill Thompson, recognition by Concordia city commissioner Christy Hasch and a welcome by Lions Club president Sue Sutton.
Thanks to a sizeable anonymous monetary gift from a Concordia resident, the Lions Club has been able to continue its ongoing tree replacement project at Pleasant Hill Cemetery.
Beginning in 2011, the Lions Club accepted  a Lions Club International challenge to create and enhance green spaces throughout the country.
To meet the challenge, the Concordia Lions Club created a plan to address the weather-related tree destruction in the cemetery.
As a result of the windstorm in 1992 there were 200 trees lost in the cemetery. Because no replacement initiative had been created, the Lions Club stepped forward in 2011 with a fundraising plan, “Put the 'Pleasant' back in Pleasant Hill.”
The Lions Club invited members of the community to collaborate in the effort and reached out to the Kansas State Forestry Service, River Valley Extension and the Concordia Parks Department for selection of trees that would thrive in Concordia's soil and environment.
The Lions Club's anonymous donor has voiced a passion for Concordia and a commitment to help the town's beauty flourish now and in the future.