Planting a Tree
Cleaning Up
Saturday,dozens of youth joined staff from Tree People and Assemblymember Felipe Fuentes’office to green and clean-up Glenoaks Boulevard. YUTEP hosted the community event,with San Fernando High School,Vaughn HS,Arleta HS,Sylmar HS,Polly HS and Maclay Middle School in attendance. This clean-up helped create a better looking environment for Pacoima and while we were at it,making it part of our end-of-the-school-year celebration.
The older youth did more of the heavy work;they gave the trees along Glenoaks Blvd. maintenance which consisted of pulling out the weeds,removing trash,adding mulch and watering the trees. The younger kids on the other hand,took charge and headed for the hill in Glenoaks near Osborne Street. They took large plastic bags and picked up trash for 2-3 hours,which gives us an idea of how bad the hill was. May we mention that even though the students played a big role in doing this we also had parents,teachers,community members,and other volunteers lending us a helping hand? Tree People collaborated with the Hollywood Beautification Team and the LADWP’s Trees for a Green LA Program (more info here) to donate free shade trees to participants and community residents.
To reward the youth for their hard work throughout the entire school year along with their cooperation in the community event and in their environmental school clubs,we celebrated with food provided by Lenchitas Restaurant while listening to a local band named the Rocken-Rollers,led by Andres Rodriguez. Thankfully,it was a total success because the faces of our participants reflected accomplishment and pride.
We thank every single person that attended;students,teachers,parents,community members,organizations,establishments and so on. And a special thanks to Tree People,Graffiti Busters,Felipe Fuentes,Starbucks,Lenchitas and Vallarta for their contribution in making this event possible. And check out our Flickr page for more pictures!
- Post by Daniela Esparza,PB Youth
Participants at Saturday's Event
Team Fuentes and Tree People staff
