As Sharon Brown, 60, walked along the Jackson Park pathways, she paused to pick up an old chip bag from the ground. After dropping it into her trash bag, she looked up. In the distance, she could see the new Obama Presidential Center museum, towering above the trees.
“I’m so proud that the Obama Foundation is here,” Brown said. “It brings younger people out to see that it’s something for all of us. I want to be a part of this history.”
Ahead of the center’s June 19 opening date, the Obama Foundation hosted its fifth annual Earth Day on the South Side event Saturday at Jackson Park. Over 150 people from across the Chicagoland area picked up trash, re-mulched the park’s trails and planted native seedlings.
“Every year we like to bring community members, neighbors from all across the South and West Sides of the city to come clean up the park,” said the foundation’s vice president of public engagement, Joshua Harris.
The event was organized in partnership with several local groups, including Emerald South Economic Development Collaborative, the Chicago Parks Foundation and Urban Growers Collective.
By 10 a.m., volunteers of all ages were spread across the park. Brown picked up trash with new friends while others spread mulch over old trails.
Rodney Drinkard, 63, rolled up his sleeves and grabbed a rake, piling mulch into a wheelbarrow. He grew up coming to Jackson Park but said he was shocked to see how much it’s changed since he was a kid.
When he heard about the opportunity to come out for Earth Day, he said he felt compelled to do his part.
“It’s rewarding,” Drinkard said. “It lets me know that people still care. With all the things that’s going on in the world today, to meet up with people to just volunteer and still care about the communities, my wife and I were like, ‘wow, this is going to be fun.’”
Throughout the day, students with the Urban Growers Collective handed out pollinator pods, which contain seeds designed to grow pockets of wildflowers that attract and nurture pollinators like bees and butterflies.
Right beside them, the Chicago Botanic Garden, a partner with the Obama Foundation on the center’s Eleanor Roosevelt Fruit and Vegetable Garden, hosted a bracelet-making station for kids and provided 300 seedlings for the Earth Day event.
Phase two of the event began at 11:30 a.m., with volunteers gathering near the West Lagoon to plant purple asters and purple coneflowers. They were guided by Iris Michael, senior manager of garden partnerships at Windy City Harvest, the urban agriculture division of the Chicago Botanic Garden.
“Those are native flowers that support pollinators,” Michael said. “They should be here for many, many years to come.”
Felicia Gomes, 38, drove in from the western suburbs near Schaumburg to kneel in the dirt and help with the planting.
“I’m very in touch with Mother Nature,” Gomes said. “We’ve done a really poor job of taking care of her, so when I see opportunities for people to go out and protect her, it’s really dear to my heart.”
She said the work creates a ripple effect beyond just a cleaner park.
“You clean up, other people walk by, and they say thank you,” Gomes said. “And then maybe next time they’ll think to sign up for something.”
As the volunteers wrapped up, staff from the Obama Foundation took them on a tour of the perimeter of the center, which will include an NBA regulation basketball court called Home Court, a playground, a teaching kitchen and a branch of the Chicago Public Library.
“Just because we open in June doesn’t mean we’ll stop being active in our neighborhoods and communities around the campus,” Harris said. “Look out for Earth Day to continue every single year right here in Jackson Park.”
