There have always been trees in front of the schools on 20th Street, but in the early 30's the Japanese Americans donated flowering cherries to the school. The trees were grown by the Mizukami family, owners of Gardenville Nursery. At that time, the school buildings sat further from the road than they do today. These trees are mentioned as "flowering cherries" in several school annuals from the 30's and 40's. You can see pictures of the school buildings with newly planted trees next to obviously mature trees during that same time frame. When the present 500 building at Fife High was built in 1949/50, the trees were removed for construction. They were either replaced or replanted, but an unfortunate accident during the 60's caused considerable damage to the trees. The young trees did not survive being run over. In 1964/65, the senior classes donated money to replace the damaged and deceased trees and to add trees to what was Fife Elementary, now the District Administration building. The original flowering cherries were mostly replaced with flowering plum. Neither species is long lived or disease resistant. The trees were removed due to age, highway reconstruction, and disease. Fife School District is replanting in order to keep an important part of our history and tradition alive. The new trees are a variety of flowering cherry.

On November 17th, members of the school district's administrative team, the Japanese American community, the high school ASB, and Fife community took part in a small tree planting ceremony. Jason Asplund, Fife High School 's ASB President, gave a brief history of the trees and their significance. Dr. McCammon welcomed Bob Mizukami and thanked the Japanese American community for their long support of the Fife School District . Mr. Mizukami, former mayor of Fife , tossed the ceremonial first shovel of dirt.