The tree that towers over Harriet Tubman Park that grows in memory of a woman who taught Morse Elementary students about the environment and sustainability is once again decorated for the season in her memory.

As they have nearly every year in the quarter-century since Katie Scholl died, about 20 Morse students spent Friday morning gleefully decorating “Katie’s Tree” with hundreds of handmade and sustainable ornaments, before enjoying hot chocolate and cookies.

Fifth-grade student Timia Evans said she was enjoying “hanging up ornaments and doing things for the community.”

The event was created and curated by Cliff Scholl and the Kiwanis Club, and Cliff was again out in the cold for several hours Friday setting up the snack tables for the kids, as well as arranging the table of free gloves and books from the United Way of the Dutchess-Orange Region the students could take with them.

“This is for my daughter; my wife, my son, and my family,” he said. “She meant a lot to everybody.”

Katie Scholl, a Poughkeepsie native and a graduate of the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, worked for the Peace Corps after graduation and, as a member of its Clean and Green Team in Poughkeepsie, taught students about the environment. At Morse she taught students about planting seeds and plants, and how to grow their own food, in the school garden. She died of cancer in 1998 at the age of 25.

While just one class, Stefani Lombardi’s fifth-graders, hung the ornaments, every student in the school created one under the guidance of art teacher Melissa Cascio. It’s a tradition that began under retired art teacher Pat Solomon, who was also in attendance Friday. She noted the tree was just a fraction of its size when it was donated for Katie Scholl 25 years ago.

Despite the cold and wind, the kids happily bounced around the tree looking for open branches to hang ornaments before returning to the box of them to reload. Many asked for help from adults to get their ornament as high up on the tree as possible, though none of them made it higher than nine feet.

Rather than the hot chocolate or cookies, fifth-grade student Praise Archer said the best part of the event was that “we get to honor ‘Katie’s Tree.’ She’s important.”

The students this year used popsicle sticks to create a flat surface then decorated them to look like bears; they also made an ornament each to keep. Cascio also taught the students Katie Scholl’s story and tied the project in with instruction on using recyclable materials to make art.

“My students know about her,” she said. “It’s important that the whole school knows. It’s important they understand about supporting the community and giving.”