‘Redding up’ the town with tulips
SLIPPERY ROCK - More than 40 volunteers in Slippery Rock Borough showed up Saturday morning to plant the town red.
The red references 8,000 tulip bulbs planted by residents, Slippery Rock Rotary Club members and Slippery Rock University students.
Though the color won’t show until April or May, volunteers committed their time and attention on a bitter cold morning for a greater purpose, according to Regina Greenwald, coordinator of Slippery Rock in Bloom and a Rotarian.
“Over the past 11 years, it’s become a tourist attraction. People come in April or May to take wedding and graduation pictures here,” she said. “And then in May we give them away to the community.”
As volunteers arrived at Memorial Park in the borough, floracultural adviser Jeff Berta showed them how to rake the soil up, how deep to plant and how close to place the bulbs.
The great tulip planting is a long-standing tradition in the borough, started by Berta after he attended a convention in 1997 and learned about America in Bloom.
“(The organization) has contests with cities of similar sizes that compete nationally,” he said. “They’re finding these cities have less vandalism and trash, more commerce coming into that city and more community participation.”
Berta provided the tulips from his business, Always Summer Herbs. The all-red theme is a callback to Western Pennsylvania.
“We always say we’re redding up the town,” he said.
In 2018, the borough was awarded by America in Bloom for its beautification efforts. The work does not go unnoticed by the community — especially the younger generation.
Melana Vaughn, a sophomore biology major at SRU, said she saw the tulips bloom last year and wanted to contribute to the planting this year.
“I would drive past going home and said they were so beautiful, I thought it would be cool to say I helped with that,” she said. “It’s a nice part of the community.”
Jennifer Klink, a sophomore biology medical science major, said she was looking to volunteer, and the extra credit she earned was just a bonus.
“(The tulips) definitely make it prettier,” she said of the park. “People come here to sit and relax. I remember (the tulips) from last year and I always admired them.”
Berta said community involvement is especially important in beautifying a town.
“If people participate in keeping the town clean, it changes the way people think about their environment,” he said. “These are people who care about ecology and the destiny of the planet they’re living on.”
Berta said he appreciated the amount of people who were dedicated to the planting.
“As I’m trying to get my breakfast together this morning, I realized it’s so much harder for (the volunteers) to get up, come out in 40-degree weather and get on their hands and knees to plant 8,000 tulips,” he said. “It’s fantastic.”
