Our Year in Review

Looking back, we engaged in so many wonderful community meetings in our gardens and parks. We convened, listened, and dreamed together in the very soil we protect. I felt so much energy and collective imagination at our Fremont Community Garden meetings this summer, which perfectly captured the spirit of co-creation that guides our mission.

It's been a joy to come to the garden and witness moments of quiet care: seeing members tend their plots with patience at Glazer Garden, preparing the earth for a new season of growth. These acts are the daily practice of belonging and patience.

This year, I'm also proud of how we closed old chapters to allow space for new ones to begin. When the time came to close the Vanguard Community Garden, we honored its legacy and supported its members. At West Athens Garden, with Heal Together, we held space for a healing circle, turning a closing into a conscious step toward new beginnings.

We ended the year by co-creating a sanctuary at Estrella Park, unveiling a new image of La Virgen de Guadalupe. This project was a labor of love and collaboration, a permanent affirmation that the voices and traditions of our neighbors are essential to the fabric of our shared spaces.

In June, we re-opened Zela Davis Park alongside our partner, the City of Hawthorne! From our first community meeting in 2019 to today, we worked together to renovate an existing, under-utilized 0.5-acre park into a multi-benefit, climate-resilient community space.

This project built upon extensive community engagement efforts to transform ZDP from a flat, empty grassy area with a small playground to a vibrant neighborhood park space with welcoming recreational and community amenities—including all the Zela Davis Elementary School students who chose animals and plants to highlight in the artwork!

Community members now have a healthy and safe space to play, learn, exercise, and relax in the newly re-opened park, featuring a walking path, picnic areas, native plants, bioswale, shade trees and shade structures, custom art elements, exercise equipment, a basketball half court, and a new playground that serves kids of all ages.

The reimagination of this park wouldn't be possible without the support of many funders, including the Baldwin Hills Urban Watershed Conservancy.

This year I joined LANLT as the Development Director. One of the highlights has been launching our new membership program as a way for individuals to partner with us in greening Los Angeles.

By making a monthly or annual commitment, members will help sustain our parks, gardens, and community programs year-round. This support also means we can plan ahead, respond to community needs, and care for these spaces long after the ribbon cuttings are over.

Over the last few months, I’ve had so much joy seeing our work in action. Watching families gather, kids play, and grandparents rest in the shade shows the impact of this work as real and deeply human. This is why I love development and fundraising; this work is about building relationships, inviting people into a shared vision, and connecting resources to communities in ways that create lasting change.

Being able to share these stories, steward supporters, and help grow the resources that bring green space to neighborhoods across Los Angeles is an honor. I wholeheartedly believe in this mission, and I am excited to welcome more members who want to help make this work come alive across the city.