Greening Grit City, One Knock at a Time

The end of summer means getting ready for planting season for all of us here at Tacoma Tree Foundation. Our team member Alejandro has been invaluable at getting out into the community and getting trees into the ground. We asked him to share his experience with Grit City Trees, community outreach, and why this work matters to him. 

Alejandro helping prepare trees to be planted as part of the Earth Day South Sound campaign.

My family and I first moved to South Tacoma in the summer of 2018. Something we really liked about Tacoma was how accessible the city felt--Tacoma hasn’t lost it’s working-class and middle class roots like so many other cities in the Puget Sound. However, we noticed immediately how bare our neighborhood was when it came to trees. I’ve always noticed trees, even in cities, and I knew it was possible to live in an urban environment while also being surrounded by trees. 

That’s why when Tacoma Tree Foundation first reached out to me about the possibility of volunteering with them on the Grit City Trees program, it was an easy decision to participate. I believe that planting trees is one of the most honest and humble causes you can support, especially within your community.

Working with Tacoma Tree Foundation allowed me to put my tree planting and community organizing skills to use. As a graduate (and now board member) of the Institute for Community Leadership, I’ve received training in planting trees, growing vegetables, and serious community organizing. 

For the 2019 Grit City Trees season, I was a neighborhood captain. As a neighborhood captain, I helped organize and coordinate the group applications in the area of South Tacoma I live in. To do this, I knocked on a lot of doors and had more conversations than I could count with people about the benefits of planting trees. 

It was a lot of work, but by the end of the season, we planted 38 trees at 17 different houses in my neighborhood.  These trees joined the four Serbian Spruces that I planted in my own right-of-way the year before. 

Alejandro with his family, celebrating Earth Day.

I did this work because I think it’s important to care for our planet and to do what we can for our local environment--being a neighborhood captain was an opportunity for me to have the kind of conversations with others that will hopefully lead to action. 

For anyone considering being a neighborhood captain this year or who wants to talk to their neighbors about trees, I have this advice: be polite and be persistent. Don’t be afraid of people saying no, but don’t stop having conversations either--keep trying with other neighbors. 

However, I couldn’t have done this work without my mentors at the Institute for Community Leadership, Dr. Roy D. Wilson and Karen Bohlke, my family back in Miami, Florida who are always supporting me and my work in the community, and lastly, my wife Esthefania and our two children, Stephanie and Ramon. Every day I work tirelessly to promote a better future for them to live in--I hope that the trees we plant today will benefit them in that better future.