2020 KOB Small Grant Awardees
Congratulations to the 2020 Small Grant awardees. Thank you so much for your commitment to keeping Oakland beautiful!
Check out the project summaries below and look out for their amazing work throughout Oakland and in your neighborhood.
MudLab Mural for Trash Collection Hub, Vanessa Pope
Location: 440 Grand Ave., Oakland, CA 94610
Description: In an effort to educate people and encourage them to reduce their single-use plastics, this grantee painted a mural on the awning of a café that shows people the effects of single-use plastics on animals and the environment. MudLab also hosts regular weekend clean ups at the lake.
Phoenix Rising Peace Park Garden, Susan Boggiano
KOB gave a grant to renovate our neighborhood Adopt a Spot park. The project successfully involved neighborhood volunteers (ranging from 4 to 75 years old) in a community building event making mosaic stepping stones to beautify the park. The average volunteer spent about 8 hours working on their mosaic piece. Some flagstones and stepping stones were donated by neighbors. We had our first neighborhood party to celebrate the new space in June with the many volunteers in attendance. The new space has seen a lot more visitors since the renovation.
Sequoia Elementary School, Storm Drain Stenciling Mural & Trash Can Mosiacs, Lara Clayman
Location: 3730 Lincoln Ave., Oakland, CA 94602
Description: Students in the Climate Changers after school club identified trash and litter on and around campus as a main concern. Sequoia Elementary School put their grant money to great use with 2 amazing projects - storm drain stencil mural and trash can mosaics. Check out the website for more info.
Healthy Havenscourt Community Garden, Celia Davis
Location: 6833 International Blvd., Oakland, CA 94621
Description: This grantee used funds to create a community garden around the Martin Luther King Jr. library. The goal of this project is to create a vision of hope, encouraging youth to get involved in the garden upkeep and connecting them to the land and fresh produce from the garden.
Micro Street Garden, Will Walker
Location: 1752 11th Street, Oakland, CA 94607
Description: This grantee created a series of small urban raised bed gardens in front of a local business that has 12 feet of open space that is usually susceptible to illegal dumping.
Hoover Elementary Garden
The intent of this KOB-sponsored project was to plant empty spaces in the Hoover Elementary Garden with crops culturally relevant to local families from Arabic and African countries. In partnership with the Permaculture Action Network, Burners Without Borders, and Common Vision, the neighborhood hosted a day of hands-on projects and workshops. Nearly 400 volunteers cleared garden spaces and created community agreements about interest, participation and crop choices. The school district has since decided to take back control of the land so they were not able to plant fava beans, chard and figs. Instead, they built two redwood benches to replace the milk crates used by crossing guards who have been protecting school children for almost 20 years.
“We are very appreciative of the opportunity to add new elements to our School’s garden, one that is transforming our students’ appreciation for each other and our earth.”
Hoover Foster Placemaking Mural, Cayla Naranjo
Litter Container Mosaic, Lara Clayman
Project Pretty Powerbox, Mural, Mailisha Chesney
Sugar Freedom Project, Garden, Molly Devinney
Renovation of the Rotary Nature Center Native Plant Garden, Steven Cochrane
Willow Park Little Free Library & Trash Can Beautification, Victoria Harris & Friends of Willow Park
Ocean View Community Garden, Greer Alley