Looking back at trees planted decades ago to celebrate Arbor Day

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: April 28, 2017

Looking back at trees planted decades ago to celebrate Arbor Day

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

ndettmann@conleynet.com 262-306-5043

Jamie Brettingen was about 7 years old.

She made the couple-blocks walk from Saint Frances Cabrini School to her parents’ home on Cottonwood Court in West Bend, carrying what she described more than 25 years later as a couple twigs. Soon after, she went into the backyard and planted those twigs.

What do those “twigs” look like today? They’re a good 30, 40 or maybe 50 feet tall.

On Wednesday, Brettingen, 34, sat in her parents’ dining area, reminiscing about those former twigs. A slight turn to her left and she looks out the window and sees two enormous pine trees reaching high into the sky, much higher than she ever dreamed of as a second- grade student at Cabrini.

“The fact that they were like twigs the size of my finger when I planted them,” Brettingen said when asked what she thinks of when she looks at those trees so many years after she planted them.

She admitted every time she goes to her parents’ house, she’ll check out the trees.

“Those are my trees,” she said with a big smile.

Brettingen (nee Maynard) planted those twigs as an Arbor Day project for school.

In all, she planted three. She planted a second one a year later and the final one the following year. Two of the trees are on the north side of the

property, the other is across the yard on the south side.

“I remember walking home carrying my little twigs in a cup,” Brettingen said.

That memory always resurfaces this time of year as today is Arbor Day. The same rings true for 2013 West Bend East graduate Landon Diel.

When Diel was about 5 years old, he planted a tree in his parents’ backyard. Seventeen years later, that tree is still around and at least 15 feet tall, he said.

“I think the message with the tree is that you can watch the tree grow as you grow,” Diel said. “It’s kind of symbolic to me. It showed me that things grow.”

Brettingen and Diel each remember having the tree was a way to teach them ownership and responsibility.

Diel remembered doing it because his parents were botany majors and they wanted to instill the importance of the environment into him.

Brettingen did it because it was a class project.

“I got to help dig the hole and put the tree in, fill in the hole,” she said. “They used to be these tiny little bitty trees. As a kid, I could never imagine they could be the size that they are now. We didn’t know they were going to survive.

“I mean, they were these two little twigs.”

However, planting them wasn’t required. Brettingen said there were classmates who probably didn’t participate, maybe even tossed them into a dumpster on their way home from school — but she kept them.

“I thought it was something really cool,” Brettingen said. “I couldn’t imagine it. It didn’t fit in my

brain that this little twig could possibly grow into a tree.

“I think part of it was I curious and I wanted to see if it would actually work. I say it did.”

This many years later, Brettingen is grateful she did.

“I love them,” she said. “It’s great.”

Brettingen and Diel each said the trees were symbolic in several ways. They are more than just a tree.

For Brettingen, who teaches Spanish and computers at St. Matthews Catholic School in Campbellsport, but grew up in West Bend, she remembered taking graduation photos next to them. She’s showed them to her young children — ages 1 and 3 — and she’s used the tree as a lesson to them. One of her children was baptized in the shadows of two of the trees.

“It’s definitely a symbol that I’ve been a part of this community and this house,” Brettingen said. “I love the fact that my kids are getting to play in the same yard, by the same tree and lose a ball under the same tree I lost a ball.

“The longevity of it. It’s still cool that they’re still here and thriving. It’s nice to be able to

come back and know they’re not going anywhere now.”

Brettingen realized the former twigs were transforming into a tree when she was in her freshman year of high school and the trees were the same height as her.

“I was like, ‘Wow. These things aren’t going to go anywhere,’” Brettingen said.

Though, there were times she was worried the trees wouldn’t make it because of some rough winters.

“Every Arbor Day I think back to the day I was planting those trees,” Brettingen said. “And they’re still there.”

A proud moment for Brettingen and her tree happened in 2007 when West Bend received a Tree City USA National Award.

“I thought that was cool. I helped with that,” she said. “It might’ve only been three trees, but darn it I helped.”

The trees took a piece of Brettingen’s heart, too.

“I would cry,” she said when asked if the trees had to come down. “They’re a part of my life. I’ve gone away and come back and the trees are still there.”