County commissioners had originally planned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day by handing out hundreds of small trees to residents for them to plant. However, COVID-19 changed the plan.
“The tree is to signify the loss,” explained chair of the Chester County Board of Commissioners Marian Moskowitz.
Moskowitz said the one tree they planted represents something larger than just Earth Day.
“The fight that we’ve had includes loss, includes people sick, people staying home not being able to go out, vulnerable people that are nervous to go to the supermarkets. This tree is the tree of hope for everybody,” Moskowitz said.
The serviceberry tree will sprout white clusters of flowers every year.
“A tree represents resiliency, right, because it lives through storms and winds and hurricanes and things like that. It weathers all kinds of storms. And our tree is resilient as we in Chester County are,” she added.
And when we’ve weathered the storm and stay-at-home orders, you can see the tree at Exton Park.