Valley Park Project, 2009

Baton Rouge Green has long want­ed to beau­ti­fy the active cor­ri­dor of Bawell Dri­ve. BRG worked with Coun­cil­man Bourgeois’s office to find neigh­bor­hood con­tacts in the Val­ley Park com­mu­ni­ty that helped plan a com­mu­ni­ty meet­ing at the local Nairn Dri­ve BREC Park. BRG also recruit­ed par­tic­i­pants by post­ing fly­ers on dozens of doors with com­mu­ni­ty vol­un­teers and invit­ing res­i­dents through a local church meet­ing. Twelve home­own­ers were recruit­ed, and BRG plant­ed 15 trees in their yards as well as in a large flowerbed that was built to beau­ti­fy the Val­ley Park com­mu­ni­ty sign at Bawell and Delta Streets. Twen­ty vol­un­teers par­tic­i­pat­ed, includ­ing a dozen youths from the ​‘Teens as Lead­ers’ pro­gram. BRG start­ed the event with a les­son on prop­er plant­i­ng tech­niques and then some neigh­bor­hood vol­un­teers shared infor­ma­tion on the rich his­to­ry of the com­mu­ni­ty with every­one before the trees were planted.