Contact: Carmen Ramos Chandler ,
(818) 677-2130
carmen.chandler@csun.edu

"CSUNday in the Grove" to Celebrate 40 Years
of University's Commitment and Service

"CSUNday in the Grove" is designed for the entire family with food, games, a petting zoo, arts and crafts, live entertainment and much more. Admission and parking are free.

Part of the day will be set aside to honor and save the campus' most distinct landmark and heritage - its 70-year-old orange grove.

In a special ceremony at noon, CSUN President Blenda J. Wilson, state Sen. Cathie Wright and Delores (Mrs. Anthony) Beilenson will join students, faculty, alumni and local business leaders in planting seven new trees, one for each of the grove's decades, in a continuing effort to replace ailing trees with healthy ones.

The university's 1998-99 women's basketball team, this year's Big Sky champions, has been invited to plant a tree in honor of student achievement.

"The fun activities we've planned for this event remind us of the importance of the grove to the university's history," Wilson said. "The grove serve to preserve the community's heritage and we're proud to celebrate them as part of the university's 40th anniversary."

"CSUNday in the Grove" begins at 11 a.m. and the festivities will continue to 4 p.m.

The day's entertainment includes Granada Hills High School's Highlander Marching Band, New Horizons Brite Lites Theater Company, Patrick Henry Middle School Drum Line, the Gentlemen Songsters Barbershop Chorus, James Monroe High School's Marching Viking Band, San Fernando Gardens Ballet Folklorico and the WaWaWiWa Reggae Band.

The tree-planting ceremony is being sponsored by the university's Save the Grove Committee, a group of students, faculty and staff that has successfully fought previous efforts to turn the grove into a parking lot or to let it die of natural causes when irrigation proved too costly. The group succeeded in raising funds for a new irrigation system and in getting the grove declared a historic site.

The grove faces a new threat as aging trees and a variety of agricultural pests and diseases threaten its health. The tree-planting ceremony will kick off a new campaign to enlist community volunteers to work in the grove and to raise funds for its care.

An Adopt-a-Tree program, which will begin this spring, will give community members an opportunity to take a tree under their care. Each of the participants in the tree planting ceremony on April 11 will be assigned their own adopted tree as a remembrance.

In the future, a display board will identify all adopted trees and make it easy for members of the community to visit their own tree as often as they wish.

Note to Editors: The dignitaries will gather to plant one tree near the gazebo behind the University Club for a photo opportunity before going to plant their trees.