The tree had grown tall since Lee Ann Meiborg planted it next to West Chicago Community High School in 2004. Towering over the roof on the building’s west side, the autumn blaze maple was a living reminder of Meiborg’s daughter Amanda, a West Chicago valedictorian who died from cancer a year after her graduation.
Meiborg visited regularly, bringing flowers on her daughter’s birthday, mini pumpkins on the Oct. 14 anniversary of Amanda’s death and ornaments around Christmas. She pulled weeds and tended the mulch, keeping its bed tidy.
But recently, when she stopped by to do a spring cleaning, the tree was gone. In its place were mounds of dirt, the first stage of a construction project Meiborg said she had been told nothing about. Even the memorial plaque that had been embedded in the ground was gone.
“I’m sitting outside (the high school) where Amanda’s tree USED to be … crying,” Meiborg wrote in a Facebook post. “They apparently removed three different memorial trees without letting families know. This cuts one more tie with living in the suburbs, but more importantly and more upsetting, it cuts another tie to Amanda.”
Yet, with that mishap came a surge of support. Friends and strangers alike stepped forward to try to mitigate the loss, and in short order ensured that not one but two trees will soon celebrate Amanda Meiborg’s memory.
“This was a moment of hope, just the generosity of people caring for a complete stranger’s memorial,” said Amanda’s childhood friend, Katie Kammes, who led a fundraiser to replace the tree. “It really has given me some fuel to get back up and fight for what really matters.”
Amanda Meiborg was a violinist, animal lover and straight-A student who started aiming for West Chicago’s valedictorian honor her sophomore year. Her mother said she planned to study zoology at Iowa State University, but toward the end of her senior year in 2002, she was stricken with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer that attacks muscle tissue.
Sick as she was, she persevered to claim the valedictorian spot, and continued to achieve high grades at College of DuPage, her mother said. But about 16 months after her high school graduation, Amanda died.
Looking for a way to memorialize her daughter, Meiborg bought a small autumn blaze maple to plant outside the school where Amanda had achieved so much. The school arranged for an outside company to do the planting, she said, and on Labor Day 2004, it hosted a small ceremony.
“Lots of friends and family were there,” Meiborg said. “One of her classmates from orchestra played the violin for us. It was nice.”
Second-story surprise
The tree thrived over the years; its trunk grew sturdy, and photos Meiborg took show its expansive branches glowing with fiery leaves. She visited often, and sometimes drove by just to look.
She said she hadn’t been aware that the school was planning to add a second story to its west wing this year, a project former Community High School District 94 Superintendent Douglas Domeracki said required the removal of the trees along the building’s west side.
“While we have been the grateful recipients of many class gifts and memorials in the 93-year history of our building, it would be costly to the taxpayers to preserve them all indefinitely, and therefore impossible to do so,” he wrote in a June 18 statement.
“We are a school with changing needs to accommodate our growing population, therefore there is no place on our campus that is exempt from modification.”
Domeracki, who retired toward the end of June, could not be reached for comment. The current administration declined comment.
Meiborg said the district ultimately offered an apology, though not an explanation for the lack of notice. The memorial plaque was returned, as well. But as word spread of the tree’s removal, some stepped forward to help.
One was Alex Carbonara, owner of DuPage Cremations and Memorial Chapel in West Chicago, who saw the news on his phone.
“In the business I’m in, I understand how important it is for families to have a memorial to go to,” he said. “It kind of hit home. If I was able to do something to help out, I wanted to.”
He said he worked with the city and the park district to secure a spot for a new tree in Reed-Kepler Park, about a mile north of the high school. Greenway Landscape Nursery and Teerling Nursery went in to donate a new autumn blaze maple, he said, while he is contributing a plaque and a bench.
A dedication ceremony will be held once the weather cools enough to allow for planting, he said.
Another effort came via Kammes. Incensed by the tree’s removal, she started a social media campaign to fund a replacement. Within five days, the effort raised $2,620, much of it donated by complete strangers. That was enough to have a tree dedicated to Amanda at Morton Arboretum in Lisle.
Meiborg chose a black oak planted in 1992, a hardy specimen capable of reaching 60 feet and living for more than a century. Located in a small grove, it’s already nearly as tall as the tree that was cut down.
Standing in its shade recently, Meiborg recalled how Amanda collected leaves at the arboretum for a high school botany class project. Such memories are what make the tree a fitting monument to her daughter, she said.
“I just can’t believe people are so kind and generous, some of them strangers who donated after hearing about it,” she said. “I’m dumbfounded at how amazing these people are … It’s just really great.”
