Two great ways to celebrate Los Banos and Arbor Day happen Friday

March 4 in Los Banos this year is a day for celebration, an opportunity to gather and cheer trees and local history.

In the morning there will be a pancake breakfast cooked by members of the local Millikan Museum Society at the city community center (645 7th St.).

In the afternoon at Crest Hills Park (700 Pioneer Rd.) there be a celebration and party honoring Los Banos’ 31st consecutive year as a Tree City USA.

Tickets for the breakfast, which will be served from 7 to 10 a.m., are $8 and can be purchased at the door. The breakfast includes pancakes, ham, eggs and a beverage.

All proceeds go to the nonprofit society that operates the Milliken Museum, which for many years has preserved artifacts of local history going back more than a century.

The Arbor Day in the Park celebration begins at 4 p.m. with presentations and awards until about 5 p.m. and continues with a tree planting demonstration, games, arts, crafts and inflatables. During the presentations children from kindergarten through sixth grade will receive awards for their winning entries in Arbor Day art and writing contests.

As in previous Arbor Days, but especially this year when people are so eager to get out and connect with others, this will be a day of camaraderie and good will, with adults and children gathering to honor trees for their shade, beauty and contribution to clean air.

“A person’s best friend on earth is the tree,” wrote Frank Lloyd Wright. And in the words of Rabindranath Tagore, “The one who plants trees, knowing that she will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life.”

Arbor Day focuses on the importance of trees to the community, and the need to plant and properly prune them. Los Banos has a continuing need not only to plant trees in areas which were previously treeless but to replace trees that had to be cut down due to disease or age.

The city’s Parks and Recreation staff, despite a limited budget, has been working on planting more trees in the city. Arbor Day also encourages community residents and businesses to plant more trees on their property and carefully maintain them.

Perhaps the importance of trees has never been greater. As temperatures continue to go up each year there is a greater need for shade. And as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere continues to increase, trees, which turn carbon dioxide into oxygen, become more valuable.

The Arbor Day breakfast also honors the importance of trees to the community. The Milliken Museum, located in a small building in Pacheco Park (905 Pacheco Blvd., set back from the highway), includes many historical photos of trees, among its many documents and artifacts related to Los Banos history.

Many people who have walked through the museum, run mainly by volunteers, have said how cramped it seems, since it is only 2,500 square feet. In that small building there is not enough space to adequately display the multitude of items it contains and not enough room for persons to comfortably move around within it.

There is good news, however, as my fellow columnist Diana Ingram-Thurston reported in last week’s Enterprise. Before long there will be a new, larger building housing the museum, and it will be located in downtown Los Banos.

According to Dan Nelson, chief volunteer and director of the museum, “The Milliken Museum Society, with support from Henry Miller’s descendants, is partnering with two local water agencies for a new museum and office complex.”

The project is planned near the Henry Miller Plaza and the Los Banos Community Center, at the northwest corner of 7th and H Streets. The vision for for the museum to blend with the Henry Miller statue and plaza and the community center.

“The partners are working with the city regarding the parcel,” Nelson said, “and have recently entered into an agreement with an architectural firm to start the initial design and cost analysis.”

The project consists of a 20,000 square-foot, two-story building with 10,000 square feet for the museum on the bottom floor and 10,000 square feet of office space for the water agencies on the second floor.

The 10,000 square feet for the museum will be four times the space the museum currently occupies.

“The project will be a tremendous asset to the community,” Nelson said, “and a centerpiece for development of the railroad corridor and downtown.”

The museum was opened in 1954 by Ralph Milliken as the Los Banos Historical Museum. Milliken was a Los Banos mailman who had a life-long interest in history, especially local history, so much so that he decided to open a museum and include materials he had collected over many decades.

When Milliken died in 1970, his friends and followers renamed it the Milliken Museum and continued it as a volunteer run and directed nonprofit entity. Many Los Banos residents have given hours and hours of their time to keep the museum alive and well.

I’m glad that the museum will be moving into a larger space in the heart of town, enabling more people to see and appreciate the many historical assets it contains.

I encourage everyone to come to the Arbor Day celebration in the afternoon and enjoy the Milliken Museum Society breakfast in the morning and, while eating pancakes, talk with Dan Nelson and other volunteers about plans for their spacious new building.

John Spevak wrote this for the Los Banos Enterprise. His email is john.spevak@gmail.com.