We ended 2015 with a fabulous green team! And we hope to continue having them with us this 2016! Our amazing green team members received awards for their dedication and hardwork with Groundwork Richmond! Sarah Calderon, our executive director, received "World's Best Boss Award," by co-workers. We had a fabulous time at our Holiday/ End-of-the-year party by doing "Secret Santa," eating some delicious food, signing to the guitar that both Lorenzo and Rocky played and ended the day with cake, celebrating Javier's birthday one day early! Thank you all for so much support throughout 2015 and we hope to continue seeing these happy faces as well as new faces this upcoming 2016! Let the fun continue! #gogreenteam! #groundworkrichmond.
Our green team like always doing the most they possibly can! Today, December 5th, 2015 our green team went out to pick up trash all over Carlson and 42nd Street. When they thought they were done, they decided to help out at the Richmond Art Center's Holiday Art Festival! We have a fabulous team! #GOgreenteam! #groundworkrichmond
Saturday November 7th, 2015, Friend of the Richmond Greenway (FORG) presented the Unity Park design! Next phase is preparation for the permit process with the city. Construction is expected to begin in late Spring 2016. Our green team will be part of this effort by doing clean-ups and tree planting. We are proud of our green team and glad they were present for this meeting. Thanks to all who came this day!
This year, Groundwork Richmond and all of our partners: Richmond Trees, PG&E, Earth Team and the City of Richmond's Parks and Landscaping Division worked very hard on Arbor Day at John F. Kennedy park. This park is recently being reconstructed for Richmond community. our volunteers did a great job and worked very hard in union with other partnerships in order to plant a total of 70 trees! We are extremely thankful to all that helped out and very proud of every single volunteer that participated and put their heart into this event! JFK Arbor Day 2015 was completely successful!Groundwork Richmond has been selected to receive an Astounding Urban Forestry Award from the California Urban Forests Council for our work in our tree-planting initiative which involves the community , the City of Richmond, partners and youth and significantly enhanced the urban forest and livability of our community.
The Groundwork Richmond staff, our youth Green Team and volunteers deserve much recognition for planting more than 200 trees over the past two years. Our Green Team and Project Coordinator, Javier Ochoa Reyes, have done an incredible job, maintaining the health of our trees. ![]() On Thursday, July 9, 2015 3:45 PM, "Butt, Tom" <[email protected]> wrote: Partnering with Groundwork Richmond, The Watershed Project, Pogo Park and Richmond Trees, The City of Richmond received a $497,292 grant to plant more than 500 trees in Richmond over the next two years (a carbon-sequestration grant), in an effort that will be led and coordinated by Groundwork Richmond. CAL FIRE administers the grant funding under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, intended to further the goals of AB 32, the California Global warming Solutions Act of 2006. ![]() Through a partnership with Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park, the Outdoor Foundation granted Groundwork Richmond a $20,000 grant to provide outdoor opportunities and education to our Green Team youth. Not only will they participate in activities such as service-learning activities in places like Yellowstone National Park, where this summer four of our youth will help build trails and other projects, but fun activities including kayaking. Rosie the Riveter's park rangers provide learning opportunities for our youth, teaching them about the rich history surrounding our local national parks. This grant will provide for staffing, outdoor activities and educational materials for our Green Team. Our first activity under this grant was a kayaking trip to Aquatic Park to visit and tour the San Francisco Maritime National Historical park led by a park ranger on the SF Bay. My name is Tyjohn Sykes. I attended a Groundwork U.S.A youth leadership training in Texas in March 2015 for seven days.When I first got to Texas I didn't know what to expect. I immediately was comforted by the people around me. They treated me like they knew me my whole life. In these seven days we learned a lot of useful information.
Our days started off with a breakfast cooked by the host and some of the volunteer youth leaders. Each day the youth leaders switched off chores. One day we learned how to use a chain saw, ax, and did stone work (cutting stone and building a small stone wall). Before working we went over the safety procedures. We wore safety goggles, hard hats, gloves,respirators, had a first aid kit available to us. We made sure to always drink water. Our nights ended with dinner and campfire talks we slept in tents. The purpose of this experience was to sharpen our skills as leaders, bring people from across the country together to share and exchange information. Another thing was to tap into unknown resources. This experience will help me in my life it taught me to be more open. In a surprise visit, Groundwork Richmond Staff, some of our Green Team and our Board Chair, were honored to receive a visit from Secretary Jewell and Director Jarvis. Our partner at the National Park Service, Superintendent Tom Leatherman made special arrangements for the visit to our adopt-a-site at 42nd St. on the Richmond Greenway.
We were all thrilled to discuss our work in the community and especially on the Richmond Greenway. Our Green Team leaders, Angel Bermudez and Sandra Flores presented our visitors with Groundwork Richmond t-shirts. Secretary Jewell, in turn, presented us with Department of Interior commemorative coins. A great day was had by all. Our VISTA, Lorenzo Plazola wrote a successful grant proposal and we won $10,000 to help build a parklet at 42nd St. Groundwork Richmond's Project Coordinator was selected as the fourth "Playmaker" of the SF Bay Area Super Bowl 50 Host Committee. Javier was selected due to his inspiring work in Richmond with our local youth, the Green Team. In his winning proposal, Lorenzo talked about Javier's work on 42nd St. one of two adopted sites on the Richmond Greenway, a 3.5 mile bicycle and pedestrian trail, which is being maintained by Javier and the Green Team.
In addition to working with local neighbors to keep the area clean, Groundwork staff and the Green Team installed a twenty panel mural depicting the local history. With this grant, Groundwork Richmond will continue to develop conceptual designs and seek additional funding to create a parklet adjacent to the greenway. |