The City of Palm Coast will be holding its 18th Annual Arbor Day event on May 6th from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. at Central Park in Town Center, 975 Central Ave. Admission is free! Refreshments and products from vendors will be available for purchase.

The tree tent opens at 9 a.m. A Master Certified Arborist will be in the tree tent from 9 a.m.-noon, offering free guidance on proper pruning, placement, planting, and root-shaving techniques. To get a free tree, bring a non-perishable, non-expired human or pet food item to trade for the tree while quantities last! City of Palm Coast employees and volunteers will be available to assist with loading the trees into your vehicle.

The native Monarch butterfly release will be at 11 a.m. Other fun activities are planned for all ages, including a butterfly tent, a petting zoo, free arts and crafts, and goodie bags for the kids.

This year also brings new additions with fun and exciting community contests to take place on Arbor Day a Kid’s Costume Contest and an Event Day Photo Contest.

Butterflies, Dinosaurs, Bumblebees, Plants, and more! – Have your children wear their favorite Arbor Day-themed attire to participate in a Kid’s Costume Contest at 10:30 a.m. near the butterfly release station. Participants are asked to arrive at 10 a.m. to check-in. Winners will be announced prior to the butterfly release.

In hopes to gather photos taken from the community on event day, we will be hosting an Arbor Day Photo Contest. Whether you capture live performances, large crowds, favorite vendors, the abundance of butterflies, or the beautiful scenery in Town Center – Submit your photos!

Residents may submit up to 3 entries for the Photo Contest by visiting the Arbor Day event page located at palmcoast.gov/events. It is free to enter. Entries must be submitted no later than midnight May 8, 2023.

The Photo contest will run from May 6 through May 8 and prizes will be given to the top 3 photos selected. Winners will be selected in May and honored at a later City Council business meeting. All photographs submitted for the contest will be used by the City for marketing, promotional, and public relations purposes.

While at the event, residents will also be able to take advantage of free paper shredding services. City of Palm Coast employees will be on standby to assist attendees wishing to use this service by wheeling totes to attendees’ cars to help unload paper and bring it to a chute that dumps all of it into a shredder.

For the free shredding service, acceptable items include staples, paper clips, spirals, notebooks, expired credit cards, checkbooks, and folders with small prongs with small amounts of metal/plastic. Unacceptable items include batteries, three-ring binders, binder clips, hard drives, X-rays, and large amounts of metal/plastic. Shredded materials will be recycled, with the ink and color removed to produce new paper towels, tissues, etc.

“Arbor Day in Palm Coast is such an amazing event and all the incredible benefits it provides to our residents and the environment,” said City of Palm Coast Urban Forester Carol Mini. “This event is about so much more than trees. It’s about bringing together Palm Coast families and friends to share in our passion for trees and keeping Palm Coast green”. In addition to the tree giveaway, the City is celebrating our love of butterflies, Monarch butterflies to be exact. Come out and celebrate our Monarch City USA designation with our Monarch Butterfly release.”

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

9:00 to 10:30 DJ Vern
10:30 to 10:45 Kids Costume Contest
11:00 Native Butterfly Release located in the rear of Central Park next to City Hall
11:15 to 1:00 DJ Vern

For more information contact Palm Coast Urban Forester Carol Mini at 386-986-3722 or cjmini@palmcoastgov.com.