Memorial Forest planting at Coromandel Town

Children from Coromandel Area School have once again been front and centre at a WWI Memorial Forest tree planting.

The students teamed up with the local RSA and our Council on Friday to plant 39 totara trees at the Coromandel Hauraki Road WWI Memorial Forest site to commemorate the 39 local soldiers who were killed in the Great War.

Students from Coromandel Area School have been actively involved in planting some of the 1,000 native trees already at the site, which as well as commemorating the fallen from Coromandel Town also represents "Supreme Sacrifice". Trees in the Supreme Sacrifice Memorial Forest commemorate those who died in the war, but weren't killed in one of the major battles that are represented by one of our sites.

The Memorial Forest site is on Council land by the Hauraki Rd wastewater treatment plant and there is now a mixed forest of totara, matai, puriri, kahikatea and horoeka (lancewood) growing there.

It was the last planting of the winter season across the Coromandel. We now have seven WWI Memorial Forest sites with trees planted and established - at least one in each Community Board area of the District.

Each site commemorates a particular campaign or battle, or an aspect of the war.

The sites we have are:

• Coromandel Town - Supreme Sacrifice and the fallen from that area. More than 1,000 trees planted.

• Cathedral Cove - Gallipoli. 2,779 trees to be planted in total. 100 trees planted.

• The new Mercury Bay cemetery - the fallen from that area - 37 blessed for planting.

• Tairua's RSA cemetery - the fallen from Tairua-Hikuai. 48 trees planted.

• Pauanui, Tangitarori Lane reserve - the Sinai-Palestine campaign. 200 trees planted; 440 more in coming years.

• Whangamata - the Battle of Le Quesnoy. 122 trees planted.

• Thames - the fallen from that area. 247 trees planted at Rhodes Park.

Contribute to the WWI Memorial Forest

The Memorial Forest is a unique initiative of our Council, working with local schools, RSAs, iwi, service clubs, Waikato Regional Council, the Department of Conservation and Wintec.

We’re asking people to please help the project by donating $100 to the cost of a tree or by joining in on the plantings, or both. You can also choose to donate $150 and plant the tree yourself.

There are three ways to donate:

1. You can dedicate the tree to a specific NZ soldier who was killed in the war. That tree gets planted in the Memorial Forest site dedicated to that particular battle or campaign.

2. You can dedicate a tree to the “unknown soldier”;

In these two cases you receive a memorial certificate that includes the GPS co-ordinates of the tree you’ve donated.

3. Or, you can gift a tree on behalf of your family without necessarily having a specific soldier in mind who was killed in the war. You’ll receive a memorial certificate but no GPS location.

To donate please go to the donate page on our website www.tcdc.govt.nz/donatetree

There are still lots of opportunities to get involved, contact our Economic Development Programme Manager Ben Dunbar-Smith on 07 868 0200 or email at ben.dunbar-smith@tcdc.govt.nz

For more information on the New Zealand World War One Memorial Forest and all its sites across our District, see our project page www.tcdc.govt.nz/ww1memorialforest

ENDS

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