18 Jan Richmond Greenway Showered With Care During MLK Day of Service

MLK Day of Service at the Richmond Greenway was a family affair for Malcolm Penton, his daughter Amia Penton, center, and his other daughter, who declined to give her name.

Story and photos by Denis Perez-Bravo

Bay Area residents nurtured the Richmond Greenway as they gave their labor and time to plant, clean, promote, host, bless and give life to different projects.

“To grow a community, and to grow an environment, you have to take care of it so it can thrive,” said 15-year-old Brentwood resident Amia Penton. “I think that’s what Martin Luther King tried to do.”

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Amia worked on a planting bed with her sister and father, Malcolm. He lived in Richmond, where he still works, until his high school years.

He remembers back then, the Greenway was different.

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In recent history, many advocates for the Richmond Greenway and initiatives have promoted its well-being. Friends of the Richmond Greenway is made up of different parties and organizations; the group was founded in 2006.

A year later, Urban Tilth’s founder, Park Guthrie, initiated the MLK Day of Service at the Greenway.

Work on the Greenway has continued for 17 years since that first day of service.

“It feels good to see everybody still cares about this community and this city and is willing to come out here this morning and do some work,” Malcolm Penton said on Monday.

This year’s event was a collaboration among Urban Tilth, Pogo Park, FORG, Hope Worldwide Bay Area Chapter, Rich City Rides, The Watershed Project, Moving Forward, Building Blocks for Kids Richmond, Contra Costa Resource Conservation District, UC Berkeley Athletics’ Cameron Institute, and Richmond Groundworks.

Volunteers could work on projects along Richmond Greenway from 2nd to 22nd Street from 9 to 11 a.m. After that, the community convened at Unity Park where a community celebration ended the event.

“It’s really exciting to see how many volunteers and how much the event has grown,” said Julianne Mackey, a conservation technician with CCRCD.

At the CCRCD site at South 8th Street and Ohio Avenue, a pollinator garden is being grown in an area that was previously concrete, Mackey said. The site is home to Scarlet Bugler, California poppy, mugwort and other native pollinator plants.

“The intention is to give butterflies, bees and hummingbirds a spot in a very urbanized and concrete city to have shelter and food,” she said.

She hopes that the Richmond Greenway can inspire younger generations that are conscious of the gargantuan issue of biodiversity loss and climate change.

“So we’re hoping that this is a space that will give locals an opportunity to get involved, even if it’s just seeing it in their day-to-day life,” Mackey said.