Community members came together to plant trees, recognize the civil rights leader Dr. Clarence B. Jones, and uphold the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Throughout the day, volunteers demonstrated a spirit of curiosity, collaboration, and joy as they planted 20 trees at Los Robles-Ronald McNair Academy in East Palo Alto and at other nearby preschools and elementary schools.
The event was brought together by Kidango, an organization dedicated to increasing access to early childhood care and education in historically underserved communities. In partnership with Canopy, a local nonprofit fostering urban forestation, Kidango sought to beautify its new campus, which will house its first childcare center in San Mateo County, serving 300 children ages 0 to 5.
Notable figures like EPA Mayor Webster Lincoln, State Senator Josh Becker, and Ravenswood City School District Superintendent Gina Sudaria spoke at and participated in the event. Scott Moore, the CEO of Kidango, opened by highlighting the importance of fostering welcoming, healthy spaces for future generations. “When we nurture children with care, dignity, and love, we change the world,” he said. “These trees that we plant today, as they take root in the soil, represent all of our commitment to a better world and a better country.”
Joyful sentiments persisted as the ceremony shifted to honoring Dr. Clarence B. Jones, the renowned advisor, lawyer, and speechwriter for King. Notably, Jones played a fundamental role in crafting King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. In his long list of accolades, Jones was recently awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and has an upcoming Sundance film about his life called The Baddest Speechwriter of All. He also celebrated his 95th birthday on Jan. 8, much to the crowd’s awe, who sang him happy birthday. After, Kidango dedicated the new childcare center’s play area as the Dr. Clarence B. Jones Legacy of Justice Playground.
“Unless you have trust in the young people, unless you believe and trust what we have today, you can’t possibly believe and trust the possibilities of tomorrow,” Jones said.
Jones smiles with Gordon and his portrait. Courtesy Tyler Gordon
Mourning the premature death of King, Jones shared his reflections on King’s life of service.
“You can read everything and hear everything you wanna say about Martin Luther King Jr. I can tell you, you can distill him down to a couple of words, but one of those words is called love,” he said. “You could not honor him more today. There’s nothing you could do, nothing you could say to beat what you are doing today.”
In one final celebration, Jones was gifted a vibrant portrait of himself by Tyler Gordon, a famous painter and Kidango alum from San Jose. Born deaf, with a stutter, and bullied as a child, Gordon seeks to express himself and inspire young people. “I just put my feelings into my own art. Painting makes me feel like I can talk without speaking,” he said.
“Art has always played a big role in the Civil Rights Movement about telling the truth and challenging injustice, helping us to imagine a better world,” Moore added. “The values that Dr. Jones and Dr. King gave voice to are the very values that shape how young people come to understand who they are and what’s possible.”
Tree Planting
Volunteers then set out in groups to plant trees across various school campuses, donning gloves and bright orange Canopy vests. With the expert preparation and teaching of Canopy’s Teen Urban Foresters, students, parents, and volunteers from a variety of local organizations dug 18-inch holes for the oak saplings. The volunteers were tasked with loosening the root balls, planting the trees, compressing the dirt, building the irrigation berm, and hammering in the stakes that support the trees.
“My favorite part of the event was working together with my friends to plant the tree, which was a kind of activity that I had never done before. It was so cool to think about how something we helped create will be a part of the community for years to come,” senior Ava Jannink, who volunteered through the M-A Service Learning Center, said.
Canopy has worked to measure the “green gap,” finding that tree coverage is much lower in EPA, compared to its neighboring cities, Menlo Park and Palo Alto. This disparity is a result of harmful institutional practices like redlining and socio-economic discrimination, leaving communities like East Palo Alto with fewer resources to care for expensive trees. Currently, EPA has a 13.5 percent tree canopy coverage across the city, ranging from two percent in some neighborhoods to 19 percent in other neighborhoods. Just across the freeway, Menlo Park has a 27 percent and Palo Alto has a 38 percent tree canopy.
The movement for “tree equity” has multi-faceted benefits. Studies show that exposure to more trees improves learning outcomes and social-emotional regulation. By increasing shade and improving air quality in EPA, a city with heavy traffic and pollution from commuters crossing the Dumbarton Bridge, the community hopes to see health benefits from these newly-planted trees. EPA has asthma rates two to four times higher than Menlo Park or Palo Alto, and adding more trees can turn this trend around.
“If you look at [oak trees] specifically, they’re really great for filtering out particulates in the air. They actually have fibrous understories on the leaves, and you can literally see the particulate matter on the back literally being scrubbed out of our air,” Arlene Nuñez García, Canopy’s Community Forestry Coordinator, said.
“Simply planting trees is not a simple thing. It is something greater,” Sudaria said. “You are building generations of hope. You’re building generations of dreams, not only environmentally, but the fact that we’re all here on this day, considering all the things that are going on, emotionally. Sometimes we are drained by working hard and giving back. And it’s the collective effort that helps us continue to move forward.”
Volunteers smile as Jones speaks. 
Jones speaks to volunteers, with Moore beside him. 
Map showing tree cover in green. Courtesy Canopy 
A Canopy volunteer speaks about the benefits of urban forestry. 
A Teen Urban Forester and M-A students compact soil around a tree. 
Kidango employees gather around a newly planted tree.
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward,” King notably said. Martin Luther King Jr. Day brought people from all over the area together to honor his life and work, inspiring young generations to continue his legacy with care, curiosity, a passion for environmental justice, and action through service.
Canopy will host another tree-planting event on Feb. 2. You can view their complete volunteering and events calendar here.
