July/August 2015 | 9
R
hode Island residents provided trees a lot
of love this Arbor Day as they attempted
to break the Guinness World Record for the
"Largest Tree Hug."
The Rhode Island Tree Council invited all
community members, "tree huggers" or not, to
participate in its family-fun Tree Huggapolooza
event—bringing attention to the importance
of trees and the environment.
"Arbor Day is the biggest day of the year
for the tree industry," says Andy Hillman,
regional business developer for Davey Resource
Group (DRG).
The tree council reached out to Hillman,
asking Davey to collaborate with the City of
Providence and Partnership for Providence to
help sponsor the event.
"The event was a lot of fun and really well-
organized," Hillman says. "I'm flabbergasted
people are still trying to break this record all
over the world."
In order to break the world record, the
city needed more than 1,000 tree hugging
participants to simultaneously hug trees for
one minute, with no overlapping hands. This
large-scale event took place at historic Roger
Williams Park, where volunteers split the land
into 26 proctored sections, allowing space for
50 tree huggers per section.
Hillman and seven other Davey employees
became tree huggers that day, but unfortunately,
it was not enough. The city originally aimed to
break Portland, Oregon's record of 936 tree
huggers, but less than one month before the
event, Korea Forest Service won the title with
1,200 tree huggers at the Korea National
Arboretum in Pocheon, Gyeonggi, Republic
of Korea—making the challenge a little
more difficult.
"Even though we didn't break the record,
I still see the event as a success—giving many
community members the opportunity to
connect with nature and trees," Hillman says.
"Let's start planning for next year and break
the record!"
Davey participants (pictured far left, Andy Hillman; center, Doak Marasco; and far right,
Natascha Batchelor) attempt to break the "Largest Tree Hug" Guinness World Record
at Rhode Island's Tree Huggapolooza event.
Tree Huggapolooza: Going
for the World Record
Idea submitted by: Andy Hillman, regional business developer, DRG
More than 2,500 attendees received
free saplings at the event.
Taylor Kunkel, Patrick Kelly and Jarred
Robinson (pictured left to right) help
children learn proper tree climbing
techniques.
