San Bernardino park cleaned up to honor Cesar Chavez
09:33 PM PDT on Sunday, April 5, 2009
Candace Armijo has fond memories of playing at Seccombe Lake Park as a child.
So the 25-year-old Loma Linda resident came out Saturday with her boyfriend, Marcos Bedolla, 29, his 8-year-old son Anthony, and her mother, Lucille Cruz, 44, to help clean up the park in honor of Cesar Chavez.
Armijo said she was happy to do her part by picking up trash, painting benches and cleaning the playground.
"It’s not going to clean up itself," she said.
UC Riverside also honored Chavez with a 5K Run/Walk, which drew 300 registered runners and walkers.
At Seccombe Lake Park, community members and AmeriCorps and Youth Action Project volunteers picked up shovels, rakes and trash bags to clean up the park bordering Fifth Street and Waterman Avenue.
Joseph Williams, chief executive officer of Youth Action Project, said this was the group’s second year with the project.
This year, 150 people volunteered, Williams said.
Youth Action Project helps young adults develop new skills through projects such as this one, Williams said.
Gabriel Gardner, 19, of Colton, was volunteering with AmeriCorps and the group Faith In God Helps Troubled Souls.
Gardner helped pick up and bag trash.
Gardner was pleased with his share of the work on the park.
"It helps to kind of make it look cleaner and better," he said.
Assemblywoman Wilmer Amina Carter, D-Rialto, spent Saturday morning helping AmeriCorps members pick up trash and debris around the lake.
Carter said she used to play at Seccombe Lake Park as a child and was thrilled to be there again.
"I had forgotten what a beautiful park this is," she said.
Carter said she met Chavez at a San Bernardino event in the 1970s when she was a staff member for the late Rep. George E. Brown.
Edward Brantley, a Youth Action Project board member, used his talents as a barber to give free haircuts Saturday.
"I figure I’ll clean up the people in the park," said Brantley, who owns a barber shop in Redlands.
Saturday’s event collected close to 100 bags of trash, said Luie Cisneros, a park maintenance worker for San Bernardino.
At Saturday’s eighth annual Cesar E. Chavez 5K Run/Walk at UCR, Miguel Najera’s said his decision to run was personal.
Najera, 32, a UCR student, ran in honor of his mother, Isabel Najera.
"My mom — she came to this country like Cesar Chavez," said Najera. "She was a farmworker."
So was his grandmother, Maria Barracan.
The women spent more than 40 years as farmworkers, Najera said.
The 5Kk drew about 300 participants, said Alfredo Figueroa, assistant dean of students.
The event was the largest in eight years.
Reach Julie Farren at 951-368-9513 or jfarren@PE.com