Remembering Loved Ones Through Living Tree Memorial

The eighth annual Badder & Robinson Memorial Forest Dedication Service will be held at the Mosa Forest on Sunday, September 21, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. Over 913 trees have been planted in memory of loved ones since the spring of 2001. During this year's service, visitors will be welcomed to the Badder & Robinson Memorial Forest in a tribute to those for whom 99 trees have been donated from September 1, 2007 to August 31, 2008. Local clergy will conduct a ‘remembrance' and ceremonial trees will be planted, following which refreshments will be available at the site.

The Badder & Robinson Memorial Forest is a special forest growing at the Mosa Forest in the Municipality of Southwest Middlesex, near Bothwell. The John C. Badder Funeral Home of Thamesville and the Badder & Robinson Funeral Home and Reception Centre of Bothwell, established a partnership with the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Foundation and the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority in 2000. ‘Our Memorial Forests are a timeless remembrance of the permanence of nature's cycle of renewal', says Peter Snow , President of the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Foundation.

The ‘Memorial Forest Program' is one of the Conservation Foundation's many programs. Family and friends of loved ones can also have a tree planted at memorial forest sites for a donation of $30 per tree (tax receipt available from the Foundation). The individual trees are not marked, however, records are kept, certificates are mailed to the next of kin and an annual dedication service is held at memorial forest sites like the Badder & Robinson Memorial Forest near Bothwell.

The Lower Thames Valley Conservation Foundation has been in operation since 1995 and is a non-profit, charitable organization, which works in partnership with the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority. The Foundation's 14 volunteer Directors help raise funds towards conservation projects within the jurisdiction of the lower Thames River watershed and region, to encourage wise management of our renewable natural resources. Our local forests are in dire need of preservation. Since 1985, well over 1 million trees have been planted in the watershed with the help of the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority and Lower Thames Valley Conservation Foundation. More trees need to be planted to ‘green' our watershed once again.

For further information, please contact:

Jason Badder at John C. Badder Funeral Home
(519) 692-4222

or

Peter Snow - President
Lower Thames Valley Conservation Foundation
(519) 641-2800

or

Bonnie Carey - Administrative Assistant to the Foundation (519) 264-2420