In 2010, we interviewed members of the Friends of Brentwood Park leadership team shortly before the group’s historic planting of 115 trees that November. Among them was Denman Glober, who defined synergy as:

The abilities and interactions between group members that build on each other and lead to accomplishing a greater goal.

Since FOBP officially adopted Brentwood Park in Summer 2009, the group has accomplished a lot—tree planting and dedication; neighborhood survey and park master plan; and a pavilion, trail, benches, water fountain, fencing, and other park improvements. Members participate with other neighbors in It’s My Park Day, now held in the spring and fall; provide supplemental watering to drought-stressed plants and trees; and helped support the installation of a purple martin house in the park in memory of Renald Ferrovecchio, who passed away in January 2012.

FOBP co-founder Emily Wilson also coordinated Crestview’s Green Neighborhood initiative, and it became a City of Austin Certified Green Neighborhood in 2010. (A history of Hancock Creek/Arroyo Seco was included in the documentation.) Little of this would have been possible without FOBP members’ and other neighbors’ vision, good energy—and synergy.

In 2010 and 2011, FOBP also helped support Rob’s and my film We Planted 115 Trees and FOBP leaders’ videotaped oral histories, which were donated to the Austin History Center. Learn more about the group and how you can help here.

There were few trees in this area as Brentwood and Crestview began to be developed as neighborhoods. Beginning in the early 50s, neighbors planted trees in their own yards and worked together to plant them at the newly established Brentwood Park and Brentwood Elementary.

Public tree planting on a large scale continued in 1992, when Brentwood neighbors planted trees along Hancock Creek (Arroyo Seco) up to Justin Lane; more recently, Crestview neighbors continued the plantings along the creek up to West St. Johns. Read more about these projects here.

Neighbors also have coordinated plantings at other once-bare locations in the area:

• Crestview Baptist Church, above right, on November 1, 2008 (Cheryl Goveia).
• St. Joseph Street in Crestview and Northcross Drive in Allandale on January 12, 2009 (Kat Correa, Crestview coordinator).
• All around North Austin Fire Station #16, above left, beginning July 24, 2010 (Emily Wilson).
• The bus stop along Woodrow by Crestview Shopping Center, about 2013, below left (Karen Lorenzini).
• Along West St. Johns south of the shopping center, below right, about 2013 (Dominique Levesque).
• The median north of West St. Johns, beginning in 2014 (Lynnette Alley, the first person to take part in the City of Austin Adopt-a-Median subprogram).
• Along Burnet and North Lamar and near Lamar Middle School and McCallum High School, 170 trees between 2010 and 2014 (Steven Zettner, Sustainable Neighborhoods of North Central Austin).

With all of these projects, neighbors adopt the new plantings and continue to care for them until they are established. Most are thriving, despite periods of drought. (Click on the images to see more detail.)

In addition, the Garden Ministry of St. Louis King of France Catholic Church, at Burnet and St. Joseph in Crestview, was established in Fall 2013. On half an acre of the church’s property, the garden is maintained by church volunteers and provides fresh produce to the St. Louis Food Pantry.

We especially liked Friends of Brentwood Park co-founder Hedrich Michaelsen‘s description of the Spring 2012 It’s My Park Day. While volunteers accomplished lots of mulching, trimming, weeding, and clearing that day, Hedrich said, something else just as important was happening between neighbors:

The strengthening of community ties to our park, as more than 75 friends and neighbors worked and laughed and enjoyed a beautiful morning together.

Volunteers are essential for helping community groups—and neighborhoods—thrive, but the camaraderie—the mutual trust and friendship—illuminates this truth:

What we contribute to our community as neighbors matters.

The Community Resources along the right include just a few possibilities for volunteering locally, including North Central Caregivers (see the group’s Wall of Welcome mosaic, left), now part of the Drive a Senior program. You can learn about helping with more informal projects—planting and watering along Arroyo Seco and at the fire station, for example—through Brentwood, Crestview, and Crestview Gardeners neighborhood email lists.

Meanwhile, tune in next time for more VVC!