Arbor Day Celebration
Saturday, November 7, 2026
8:00 AM - 12 PM
McAllen Municipal Park
1921 N Bicentennial Blvd.
Keep McAllen Beautiful will host its 15th Annual Arbor Day Celebration in partnership with the City of McAllen Parks and Recreation Department, who will be hosting the McAllen Triathlon Challenge. We cordially invite you and your family to be part of this celebration.
This free, family-friendly festival will feature a kids fun run, tree adoptions, local vendors, educational booths, food, music, a Trashion Show, and you! The Arbor Day Celebration is known to bring over 1,000 people in attendance, which makes it a fun way to connect with the community.
Bring a plastic water bottle or aluminum can so you can trade for a tree/shrub. You will have a chance to get one-gallon pot tree/shrub and one plant band per person. Our goal is to grow our tree canopy and help recycle as much as possible. We will have an ongoing tree workshop and our tree expert will be on site helping answer any question or concern you have on your trees. All the trees/shrubs that will be given out for adoption are native plants. We will add list to the website as the event gets closer.
Not only will we be giving away free plants, but we will also have a free Kids Fun Run for children 12 years of age and younger. Kids will run/walk about 1 mile and at the end will get a one of a kind finisher medal. We will also have a shirt for the first 300 kids that check in at the park for the run. You can download the registration form or sign up online.
A new feature we will have this year is a Trashion Show. We are making a call for all creators, designers, and trendsetters to inspire your community with your creativity through fashion made from recycled, repurposed, and reusable materials. We will have you show off your creations during our celebration. All participants will receive an appreciation gift and medal for their hard work. We will have more information coming soon.
For all the athletes out there, McAllen Parks and Rec will be hosting its first ever McAllen Triathlon Challenge. It will consist of a 250-meter (0.37-mile) swim at the Municipal Pool, followed by a fast 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) out-and-back bike course from the pool to SH 107 via Bicentennial Boulevard. Competitors then wrap up with a 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) run heading south on Bicentennial to Pecan and north to Nolana, ultimately crossing the finish line back at the Municipal Pool.
ARBOR DAY SPONSORS 2026
ORIGINS OF THE ARBOR DAY CELEBRATION
The Arbor Day Challenge is the brainchild of Mark Kroeze (our previous City of McAllen Forester) and Salvador Alemany (our previous Texas Forest Service Forester). The first Arbor Day “Challenge” took place in 2012, these two helped the City of McAllen put on an Arbor Day Bike Tour and have since come back every year to make it an even bigger and better event.
The second year, the two foresters said, "Hey, what if we made this thing a race? What if we gave people a chance to celebrate Arbor Day with a Criterium so that cyclists could race each other?
The third year, the two foresters and KMB said why not a 25-mile bike tour, a 5K run, or a 10K run and a bike criterium? And what if we added something for families too?"
Thus began the Arbor Day Celebration. Currently, the event features a timed 5K, a timed 10K. The event also features a 25 mile and 100K bike tour (no timer, no pressure) and a Kids 1 Mile Run (kids 12 years and under).
You see, Mark and Salvador love trees, and so does our city, and since Arbor Day is really about celebrating and protecting the trees that make this earth the beautiful blue and green globe that it is, we wanted to do our part to make our community and our world a better, brighter, and healthier place. For that reason, we will also give away trees every year, as well as have the planting of trees in one of our city parks.
So, we want to invite you to be a part of an event that will plant new trees in a public space, give you a city that is greener, cooler, and easier on the eyes, and give you a chance to get out and get active with your community!
Whether you walk, bike, run, ride, or just want to watch, we hope to see you at the Arbor Day Celebration!
WHY ARE TREES IMPORTANT?
Trees have been an important part of our day-to-day lives and give us the different kinds of benefits not only for our environment, but also to our economy, health and society.
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