The NFL and the Los Angeles Super Bowl Committee continue to improve the environment by teaming up with TreePeople and Verizon to plant over 25 trees in Watts. Dozens of volunteers planted Lemon Bottlebrush trees along Hickory Street between east 105th and 107 streets.
Trees are needed in urban areas to absorb pollutants, provide shade, and cool the area. Adding trees also can improve the mental well-being of the residents. TreePeople is an organization that makes neighborhoods greener.
“TreePeople has been around for over 40 years and we have dedicated those years to expanding the urban canopy,” said TreePeople associate manager LizBeth Gonzalez. “There’s areas in the city of Los Angeles that lack urban canopy, so our goal is to fill every empty parkway.”
Verizon’s partnership with the NFL and TreePeople shed light on the environmental goals the cell phone company has.
“By 2030, we will plant a total of 20 million trees across the country,” said Verizon consumer sales director Ana Aguilar. “Since we’ve been partners with the NFL, we’ve planted 7.8 million across the country.”
Verizon will also plant 5,600 trees in Southern California to celebrate 56 years of the Super Bowl. Aguilar, who grew up five miles away from Watts, was excited to serve in her own community. NFL Green Director Jack Groh helped plant a tree. When a group of TreePeople volunteers is done planting a tree, they hold hands around the tree and give it a name. The tree Jack helped plant was named Lucy.