TreePeople has trained thousands of students and volunteers in neighborhood renewal and community service throughout Southern California, and they have planted over 3 million trees. After the devastating Los Angeles riots, over 3,000 local residents joined TreePeople in a work project and planted thousands of trees along a 7-mile stretch of Martin Luther King boulevard in South Central LA in one single day. It was a powerful, healing act that started reversing the feelings of despair that arose from the destruction of the riots. Today, TreePeople is at the forefront of the urban forestry movement, and they have very big and exciting ideas. Beyond just adding beauty, trees prevent flooding and can actually help LA save significant amounts of water that otherwise would rush to the ocean during storms.
Trees also cool the city, which decreases air pollution and enhances living conditions.
TreePeople just got a huge grant from the government to design and demonstrate ways in which LA can become a world model of an environmentally friendly city. If their demonstration works, and there is every reason to believe it will, then their plan will begin to be implemented in building and remodeling plans for the future of the city. Imagine that, LA as an environmental model for the world, created by a bunch of kids. Another story I like to tell about making a difference is my friend Connie, a retired optometry assistant living in Seattle. After she retired she got to thinking that a lot of people just throw away their old eyeglasses when they buy new ones, and surely someone could use the old ones.