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. 

First neighborhood party at our newly renovated space.

Renovated park meeting place complete with the mosaics that many of my neighbors contributed to.

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.

By painting images and/or words near storm drains, you can teach the public about how litter on land harms wildlife in our streams and oceans, and also human health.

An attractive litter container will hopefully encourage community members to use it, therefore reducing litter in the environment.

​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.

Before

During

After

​Additional 2020 Small Grant awardees below

• 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