Two decades ago, AIDS was much more prominently featured in the news. Some of our fellow running club members were living with AIDS while others had already died. In 1987, the club laid an AIDS quilt panel on the National Mall in honor of its lost members. Several DC Front Runners came together and agreed to start planning a memorial grove of flowering trees to commemorate members of the club who had died. In collaboration with the National Park Service, they chose a location along the route we run or walk each Saturday – going north on the Rock Creek Trail, just over the footbridge on the right, just before you get to the Calvert/Connecticut Avenue entrance to Rock Creek Parkway by the Taft Bridge.

The National Park Service had a few requirements: the trees had to be native to the area, the Park Service would choose and plant the trees, and the Club had to come up with a substantial monetary contribution and assist with watering the trees. The Club asked for and received donations from members and the families of members and the Grove was underway.

The DC Front Runners Memorial Grove was planted in 1988 – twenty years ago and a full year before the larger and much better funded AIDS Memorial Grove was started in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The Club started with five trees in memory of the five members who had died before planting started. Although individual trees were not identified with individual members, the plan was to continue to plant trees with attractive flowers or fall foliage and thereby maintain the Grove.

By 1995, a full complement of trees and shrubs were established and thriving. Several more club members had died – some of causes other than AIDS – and DC Front Runners expanded the original concept of the Grove to memorialize all members who had died. At this time, fewer members were dying, the trees and shrubs were well rooted and healthy, and the grove was – if not neglected – at least allowed to continue on its own over the years.

On the Grove’s twentieth anniversary, we are making a renewed commitment by restoring and replanting this tribute to our lost members. In collaboration with the National Park Service and Casey Trees, DC Front Runners will plant ten new trees in the Grove and then care for them during the next two years until they are strong enough to grow on their own.

Casey Trees, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to restoring the diminishing tree canopy of Washington, DC, will donate ten trees as part of our Grove restoration project, together with enough mulch for planting. They also are working with the National Park Service to get the necessary permits, plan the schedule for delivering the trees, create a staging area, and take care of other logistical details. DCFR has committed to providing the labor to plant the trees and take care of them – watering and minimal weed-pulling – for the first two years after planting to assure that the trees develop a strong root system and can survive our dry summers without further assistance.

Many thanks to the Casey Trees Foundation, National Park Service, District of Columbia Aquatics Club and DC Front Runners members and alumni who have generously donated their time, expertise, labor, supplies and/or financial contributions to restore our Memorial Grove.

If you would like to volunteer for the November 15 event and/or are willing to help with the on-going maintenance of the DC Front Runners Memorial Grove, please contact John Noran at walkers@dcfrontrunners.org

Thanks to our supporters

CLICK HERE to find out more about DC Front Runners history

SEE PHOTOS from the November 1 Kick-Off Event

DOWNLOAD your “Restore the Grove” poster

SEE PHOTOS from the November 15 Planting Event

RESTORE. REPLANT. RENEW.

Twentieth Anniversary of the DC Front Runners Memorial Grove 1988 - 2008