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.