In 2009, Laurens District 56 was building a new high school, and our local American Legion post had decided to dissolve and sell their building and property to the city. Clinton Canopy entered into a partnership that resulted in the development of an arboretum on the high school grounds - brain-child of one of our members, Laura Blind, a retired outdoor educator. The American Legion jump-started the project with a donation for 17 trees. We sold additional trees in memory or honor of loved ones. Liz Tapp did the design and worked with Dale Taylor Trees of Mountville to locate 61 different varieties of trees. Ellen Boyce from DHEC arranged for GPS mapping. We ordered signage and coordinated with the high school Agriculture department who handled the actual planting. Altogether 173 trees were planted with 94 of them being dedicated to veterans. When the arboretum was officially dedicated on April 19, 2011, the program contained acknowledgements for 33 individuals, groups, or businesses that had participated in some way to making it happen.