In February, my volunteering group, Pacific Asian Volunteering Association(PAVA), collaborated with Amigos de Los Rios, and planted trees together! Thanks to Amigos de Los Rios, the members of PAVA were supplied with gardening supplies and were taught how to plant different types of plants and trees. All the volunteers planted the trees and plants in an abandoned park and we were able to bring the park back to life.

In the beginning, the volunteers were taking out all the plants from a big truck and placed them on their assigned places on the soil. We were then taught how to carefully plant a plant into the soil and how to not spill all the soil. We were all assigned different jobs, as some people watered the plants and some people dug holes for the plants. I got the watering job and was given big buckets with a plastic bag opened inside of it. The watering group had to walk to the hose and fill the bucket until the water reached the middle of the water.

We didn’t the bucket to be too heavy for us to carry. We were given smaller buckets and placed the water-filled buckets into different destinations and used the smaller buckets to water the plants. There were many plants and it took us around 4 hours to finish planting and watering all the plants. This was a very exciting experience for me. It was amazing being able to plant many plants in one place and water them to a greater life. I was able to help a park become lively with beautiful plants again. This will allow the park to become a park for many children to play in and remember for the rest of their lives.

Seeing an abandoned park become a place for people to visit is very heart-warming and beautiful. From volunteering with Amigos de Los Rios, I was also able to have a greater knowledge of plants as well. Collaborating with the Amigos de Los Rios has been a very fun and pleasant experience and I will love to plant trees with them again in the future. The Amigos de Los Rios was as kind group that taught us a lot about the environment. I am very happy to be able to do this because I was also able to make the environment a better place. I look forward to seeing the day these plants will be all grown and admired by many people.

<Ashley Park Fairfax High School 10th Grade>