Session Meeting Minutes

• Letter from Joyce Butcher, Stated Clerk, regarding annual records review.
• Packet containing information on 2005 Presbytery.

1. Treasurer’s Report: Accepted as written.
2. Unfinished Business: None.
3. Pastor’s Report: No change in vacation and study leave dates. Reverend Doyel will be leaving on February 27, 2005, to attend Presbytery in Hawthorne, Nevada and will provide a short report at the next session meeting. We should receive the first check from the Cell Phone tower next month. Dick Owen is in the process of conducting an audit of the church books.
4. Church and Community Reports: Daytimers – none. Scouts – We now have three cubs and nine scouts. There is a new scout district representative that is willing to work with our scouting program. The scouts did a good job at the annual church clean up.
5. Committee Reports: Stewardship and Finance – January 2005 report accepted as written. Session needs to explore some ideas to remind people of their pledges, particularly during the summer months. Christian Education – Three children will get Bibles at the end of this year and are eligible to join the church. Youth Sunday will be May 22, 2005, at both services. Building and Operations – The stain in the carpet that was caused by a leak is being worked on. Personnel: None. Nominations: None. Worship – The possibility of adding 150 new Bibles to supplement the ones we already have is being explored. Several samples to choose from will be supplied. The schedule of Pastors that will fill in when Reverend Doyel is absent is still pending and will be finalized shortly. Membership – None. Mission – One Great Hour of Sharing is March 27, 2005.
6. New Business: Several dates for the next Joint Session/Deacons Meeting were discussed; however, no date was set.

Come to the Carnival at Henderson Presbyterian Church!!

10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Saturday, April 2, 2005

Arbor Day

The first Arbor Day took place on April 10, 1872 in Nebraska. It was the brainchild of Julius Sterling Morton (1832-1902), a Nebraska journalist and politician originally from Michigan.  Throughout his long and productive career, Morton worked to improve agricultural techniques in his adopted state and throughout the United States when he served as President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of Agriculture. But his most important legacy is Arbor Day.

Morton (photo, right) felt that Nebraska's landscape and economy would benefit from the wide-scale planting of trees. He set an example himself planting orchards, shade trees and wind breaks on his own farm and he urged his neighbors to follow suit.  Morton's real opportunity, though, arrived when he became a member of Nebraska's state board of agriculture.  He proposed that a special day be set aside dedicated to tree planting and increasing awareness of the importance of trees.  Nebraska's first Arbor Day was an amazing success.  More than one million trees were planted.  A second Arbor Day took place in 1884 and the young state made it an annual legal holiday in 1885, using April 22nd to coincide with Morton's birthday.

In the years following that first Arbor Day, Morton's idea spread beyond Nebraska with Kansas, Tennessee, Minnesota and Ohio all proclaiming their own Arbor Days.  Today all 50 states celebrate Arbor Day although the dates may vary in keeping with the local climate.  At the federal level, in 1970, President Richard Nixon proclaimed the last Friday in April as National Arbor Day.  Arbor Day is also now celebrated in other countries including Australia.  Variations are celebrated as 'Greening Week' of Japan, 'The New Year's Days of Trees' in Israel, 'The Tree-loving Week' of Korea, 'The Reforestation Week' of Yugoslavia, 'The Students' Afforestation Day' of Iceland and 'The National Festival of Tree Planting' in India.  Julius Sterling Morton would be proud.  Sometimes one good idea can make a real difference.

Taken from TreeHelp.com (www.arbor-day.net/)