A tree planted at Cumberland’s old Chinatown in memory of a local woman’s grandparents has been stolen — and volunteers in the area hope it will be returned.

“The spot is still there with a circle of rocks around it and a hole in the middle,” said May Gee this week about the former location of a hawthorn tree that’s gone missing sometime during the winter season.

The tree was planted in the clearing in the old Chinatown site — near the spot where an ad-hoc committee working on the park hopes to build a picnic shelter, if given approval by the village.

Gee had decided to plant the tree in memory of her grandparents, who ran a store in the old Chinatown. Not only did her grandfather sell herbs from the hawthorn because of its medicinal purposes for the heart and blood, but they also loved the looks of that particular genus.

“My grandparents liked the hawthorn — it’s so pretty, it has such pretty flowers,” said Gee.

They planted the tree originally in May last year, and then moved it a few months later when they decided it was in too much shade.

She last saw it before Christmas, but because of the weather through the last few months, Gee hadn’t been down to see it.

A few weeks ago John Leung, with the Chinatown ad-hoc committee, found that the tree was gone and broke the news to Gee.

“She was hoping that other people would put more trees in there and we were hoping too,” said Leung about the disappointment felt about the lost tree.

Leung said it’s been a challenge in some cases to get people to respect the property as a preserved park — but that generally, as the group’s made improvements, they’ve been respected by people in the community.

Instead of digging for artifacts, he said, people have contributed to garden work they’ve started.

This incident is still very disappointing — and he hopes whoever it is that took the tree will make it right.

“It’s an adult that wanted that tree and they took it,” he said, saying it doesn’t have the same hallmarks of teenage vandalism. “Would you please put it back — no questions asked.”

A public meeting is being scheduled for the end of March to discuss the potential of a picnic shelter in the park.

Gee said she’ll wait until they’ve started more in the Chinatown area before planting another tree — hoping that as more people are around, there’ll be less opportunity for theft and vandalism.

“I just feel very disheartened — I might think about it more later but I’m not going to plant another tree right now because I know it’s not a good thing,” she said.

Leung said they’ll keep on their work in the park — and will hope that others will support them by helping to improve and monitor the relatively-isolated property.

“You can’t help but feel that one’s ruining it for others,” said Leung. “And this time it’s adults.”