On Sept. 16, a devastating tornado hit Ohio State University’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) in Wooster, ravaging the center’s Secrest Arboretum.
The tornado -- rated at EF-2 on a scale of 0-5 with winds of up to 130 mph -- leveled about a quarter of the 120-acre arboretum, including a just-opened visitor pavilion, display gardens and more than 1,000 trees. No one in the arboretum or on the main OARDC campus was seriously injured.
“Some of these trees were over 100 years old,” said Bobby Moser, dean of Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, of which OARDC is the research arm. “They were planted by Edmund Secrest (the arboretum’s founder) himself. It’s heartbreaking to see this devastation.”
Arboretum Program Director Ken Cochran said cash gifts of any size are welcome. Gifts for memorials and for honoring individuals can be arranged. All gifts are tax-deductible.
Individuals, foundations and corporations interested in donating to the arboretum can do so online at www.giveto.osu.edu/secrestfund. One hundred percent of all gifts to this fund will go directly to the arboretum’s renewal efforts.
The arboretum remains closed to the public at least until Nov. 1.
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