Watertown resident and artist Adelaide Sproul, who passed away in 2009, in her studio. Donations were made in her name to Trees for Watertown’s Teens for Trees program.
The following piece was provided by Trees for Watertown:
TFW Teens for Trees, a six-week summer internship program to teach Watertown teens about the many benefits of maintaining a healthy urban shade tree population, received two generous donations this Fall in honor of former longtime Watertown resident Adelaide Sproul.
Adelaide Sproul was a painter, sculptor and writer, and a founder and early president of Trees for Watertown (TFW), a volunteer citizens group founded in 1985 to protect and plant public shade trees and to advocate for a healthy urban forest in Watertown. Ms. Sproul lived and worked on the top floor of a house overlooking Whitney Hill Woods until shortly before her death in 2009 at age 95.
“Adelaide was an early proponent of TFW and the prime mover organizing the first Whitney Woods Cleanup Days,” said Paul A, Tamburello Jr., longtime neighbor of Ms. Sproul, who gave a matching-funds gift of $500 in Ms. Sproul’s honor to Trees for Watertown’s fundraising campaign for Teens for Trees. “She would be over the moon about the central project to inventory Watertown’s public shade trees.”
“Adelaide was a founding member of TFW — working on it meant a great deal to her. Trees were herinspiration,” said Helen McElroy, Ms. Sproul’s daughter, who with her husband Philip McElroy also gave $500 in Ms. Sproul’s honor. “She (and we) marveled every day at the beauty of the beeches and oaks behind our house on Whitney Hill. The effort to educate and inspire children about trees would thrill
her.”
The results of TFW Teens for Trees work this summer on a public shade tree inventory and total tree canopy assessment will be presented to a joint meeting of the Town Council Rules & Ordinances and Public Works Subcommittees on Monday, Oct. 15 at 6:15 p.m. in the Watertown Administration Building Lower Hearing Room.