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Parkland Garden Club honors zoo arboretum caretaker

Published October 22. 2022 04:14PM

By ED COURRIER

Special to The Press

The Parkland Garden Club gathered at the Lehigh Valley Zoo, Schnecksville, to honor Groundskeeper Scott Fenstermaker during a belated 2022 Arbor Day tree planting ceremony on Sept. 16.

Fenstermaker was honored for his 40 years of tending to the 343 memorial trees and plants garden club members have sponsored in their arboretum and medicine wheel garden within the grounds.

Garden Club President Claire Kukielka promoted horticulture and conservation in her introductory remarks, and Patti Molitoris led the invocation.

After cake and refreshments, the gardeners and their guests followed Fenstermaker around the zoo complex to dedicate several new trees with brief ceremonies, including the symbolic spreading of mulch around the roots.

An eastern redbud was dedicated to club member Barb Campbell who was recipient of the 2021 District II/III, Garden Club Federation of Pennsylvania Award.

Campbell also garnered a 2021 District II/III Perennial Bloom Award for “longtime service” to the Parkland Garden Club and the Central Atlantic Region of State Garden Clubs’ Perennial Bloom Award for 2021-22.

Fellow gardener and past president, Sue Weber, was honored with a purple magnolia for scoring a 2021-22 Community Action Award from the Garden Club Federation of PA. She joined the garden club in 1968.

A purple magnolia was planted in memory of Bernadette Marushak, past president of the Parkland Garden Club and arboretum founder.

On hand were her son Adam, a philosophy professor teaching at a college in China, and her brother Pasco Ruggiero from Allentown.

Other memorial trees include a pink dogwood in memory of Mary Paukovits and a sweet bay magnolia in remembrance of Jeanne Partel.

A viburnum mariessii was dedicated in Fenstermaker’s honor and a replanting of a hydrangea invisibelle spirit was done in memory of Joseph Ceci.

The COVID-19 pandemic shut down the club’s previous planned Arbor Day celebration for April 2020 and disrupted the one scheduled for April 2021.

Other concerns converged to postpone the 2022 event until fall.

“Since the summer was extremely hot and dry and not the most conducive to planting trees successfully, we again decided to have our ceremony in September,” remarked Barhight.

Parkland Garden Club Conservation Chairman Debbie Barhight and Scott Fenstermaker show a cake marking Fenstermaker's “40th Anniversary Arbor Day Partnership” with the garden club and Lehigh Valley Zoo.
Barb Campbell is ready to spread mulch around the eastern redbud planted in her honor for being the recipient of the 2021 Perennial Bloom Award. PRESS PHOTOS BY ED COURRIER
Dedicating a purple magnolia to the memory of Bernadette Marushak are her son, Adam, best friend Sue Weber, and her brother Pasco Ruggiero. Marushak was a past president of the Parkland Garden Club and founded the club's arboretum at the Lehigh Valley Zoo. She died in 2020.
Scott Fenstermaker is flanked by (left) Debbie Barhight and Lehigh Valley Zoo CEO Amanda Shurr as a viburnum mariessii is dedicated in his honor.
A pink dogwood is planted in memory of Mary Paukovits by her daughter, Marie Peart, and retired New Jersey policeman Tom Conroy. Paukovits died in 2021.
Sue Weber and husband, Bill, enjoy a light moment as she is honored with a purple magnolia to celebrate her as the recipient of the Garden Club Federation of PA's 2021-22 Community Action Award. The Webers have been married for 57 years.
PRESS PHOTOS BY ED COURRIER Tim Partel shovels mulch around the base of a sweet bay magnolia planted in memory of his mother, Jeanne, by their friends Marsha and Naser Chowdhury.
Lehigh Valley Zoo CEO Amanda Shurr and Parkland Garden Club members and their families gather behind an Adam's needle and thread yucca planted in memory of PGC members Sally Longenberger and Jeanne Partel who died in 2019 and 2022, respectively, and Groundskeeper Scott Fenstermaker.