Edmonds-Woodway trees rise

Published 11:04 pm Monday, October 1, 2007

EDMONDS — Students at ­Edmonds-Woodway High School often met beneath the dozen shady trees in their campus’ courtyard.

Not on the morning of June 18.

Students and faculty arrived on campus that day to find that vandals had cut down the grove of ash, cherry and snowdrop trees.

On Saturday, students, parents and teachers gathered in the courtyard to celebrate the planting of new trees to replace the ones that were lost.

“We welcome the trees with all of our hearts,” said former school Principal Alan Weiss, who retired at the end of last academic year. “We hope they grow as tall as their predecessors.”

During the ceremony, several students and school officials read poems about having hope. Readers included Principal Michelle Trifunovic, Edmonds Mayor Gary Haakenson, district Superintendent Nick Brossoit and Student Body President Jacquelyn Simmons.

The high school choir sang after all the poems were read.

“I thought it was beautiful,” Simmons said.

Simmons, a senior, remembers arriving at school in June to find the trees lying in the courtyard. Students were upset. The trees had been planted in 1998, when the outgoing senior class was in kindergarten.

However, the vandalism brought students together, Simmons said.

Many students aren’t used to the new trees, which were planted about a week ago, she said.

“It made a lot of people appreciate the old trees,” she said. “These are nice, but it’s not as pretty as before.”

Before the new trees were planted, orange cones were set up around the holes where the old stumps had been removed. The district had expected to spend about $40,000 for all the work, Trifunovic said.

Kaylee Tilton, a senior at Edmonds-Woodway, said the trees bring a “nice feeling” to the courtyard. She’s noticed more students hanging out there since the new trees were planted.

“They’re smaller, but it’s nice to have color in the courtyard besides orange cones,” Tilton said.

Peggy McCartney, whose son is an Edmonds-Woodway student, has volunteered in the school district for years. She was saddened the day the trees were cut down.

Now, she takes comfort in how the community has responded to the crime.

“Whatever the vandals were trying to create in terms of a negative, we just turned it into a positive,” McCartney said.