Photo from an old news clipping provided by the author.
Curtis Wilson (in the doorway) and his friends are about to carry their little saplings with bagged roots to be planted. This was in 1965, in the beginning of the Suffield Garden Club’s long fourth grade tradition.
Marilyn Wilson was teaching third and fifth grade at Spaulding and McAlister Schools in 1965. She was there to capture her son, Curtis, and his friends as they boarded the school bus with their trees. You can see Curtis peeking out from the door in the photo. “The children were thrilled,” she recalls with a big smile. The Wilson family lived in West Suffield at the time and the tree was proudly planted. Marilyn’s daughter and younger son also received trees in the next few years; Lynn in 1967 and Peter in 1973. When they moved to Hill Street ten years or so later the trees went with them. Unfortunately, one of them did not survive the move but there are two tall, beautiful sugar maples still in their yard. There is a wooden swing hanging from Curtis’ tree. The trees provide shade for humans, shelter for birds and squirrels and peace to any family member who sits under their limbs. Today, Mrs. Wilson has three grandchildren who have a story to tell about the day they received their tree!
The Wilson family would not have any stories if it were not for one woman, Valyn Gallivan. She was a woman passionate about planting, the environment, children and trees. And she had a vision. She believed it was important for children to learn about trees, so she made sure that each fourth grade child in Suffield would receive one, even after she was gone.
In the past, the children would take their tree home on the bus. Today, parents pick up their children and the trees.
Mrs. Thomas Gallivan was a member of the Suffield Garden Club (SGC). Today, it’s the SGC that still carries out the wishes of their dear member. It is no easy feat to organize the procurement of the trees and the care of them until they are claimed by the smiling youngsters. The SGC honors Mrs. Gallivan with respect and gratitude by maintaining her headstone at the Zion’s Hill Cemetery by the First Baptist Church.
For the past 52 years, fourth graders have received a beautiful gift, the gift of a living tree from a woman with a vision. Valyn Gallivan is the proverbial pebble in a pond whose ripple has been felt by generations of children – with no end in sight.