Fun for one and all was had at the annual Arbor Day Celebration, held on May 26 at Eldridge Elementary School.  The event was a successful example of how our Hayward local agencies come together to celebrate and recognize the community we live in - this time focusing on trees and our local Urban Forest. 

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Did you know that for the last 30 consecutive years, Hayward has been awarded the “Tree City USA” award by the Arbor Day Foundation in honor of its commitment to effectively manage our urban forest? Hayward achieved this national recognition by meeting the programs four requirements: 1) having a tree department, 2) having a tree-care ordinance, 3) having an annual tree budget of at least $2 per capita, and 4) having an Arbor Day observance and proclamation. Learn more here.

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Since 1985, an Arbor Day celebration has been held in Hayward, with the celebration being a partnership between the City of Hayward, Hayward Unified School District (HUSD), and the Hayward Area Recreation District (HARD).  This year’s event included presentations, mascots, information booths, a choir and tree plantings. 

The MC for the program was Mr. Enrique Pin, Eldridge Elementary School Principal.  The event was attended by Eldridge Elementary School students, along with local officials to include the Honorable Barbara Halliday, Mayor of the City of Hayward; Francisco Zermeno, City of Hayward Councilman; Sara Lamnin, City of Hayward Councilwoman; Rick Hatcher, HARD Director; Carol Pereira, Secretary - HARD Board of Directors; Lisa Brunner, HUSD President – Board of Trustees; Stan Dobbs, HUSD Superintendent/CEO and Timothy Williams, from the U.S. Forest Service.

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The community celebration included information booths from Sulphur Creek Nature Center and the City of Hayward Fire and Police departments. An Arbor Day poster contest was held for Harder Elementary School students who submitted entries.  Twelve winners were chosen and received t-shirts and passes to Kennedy Park as their prize. Their art has been prominently displayed at City Hall. Eldridge students from Mrs. Martie Canterberry’s music class performed two beautiful songs – including the Star Spangled Banner. To get the children involved and interested in stewardship of our Urban Forest, the children participated with staff to plant ten Crepe Myrtle trees and four redwood trees.

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Check out the winning posters, poems, and essays from the 2016 Earth Day Poster & Writing Contest. Students with winning entries were recognized during a special ceremony at the City Council meeting on Tuesday, May 17^th.  The Earth Day Poster and Writing Contest provides Hayward students with an opportunity to describe through words and convey through pictures their ideas about water conservation, energy efficiency, recycling, composting, and related environmental topics.  Students are invited to submit their entries in March and April every year!

From left to right, images below show the first, second, and third place entries for each category.

Kindergarten to 2^nd Grade Posters:

1^st Place           Markuz Gabriel Pablo, Palma Ceia Elementary School

2^nd Place          Fabian Quiñones, Burbank Elementary School

3^rd Place           Joseph Aquino, St. Bede Catholic School

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3^rd to 5^th Grade Posters:

1^st Place          Isabella Panganiban, St. Bede Catholic School

2^nd Place         Shareeza Dean, St. Bede Catholic School

3^rd Place         Sienna Hernandez, Lorin Eden Elementary School

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6^th to 8^th Grade Posters:

1^st Place           Sai Obispo , Treeview Elementary School

2^nd Place          Linda Ortega , Anthony W. Ochoa Middle School

3^rd Place          Cynthia Gómez, César Chávez Middle School

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9^th to 12^th Grade Posters:

1^st Place           Jassimran Sra, Mt. Eden High School

2^nd Place          Kody Nguyen, Mt. Eden High School

3^rd Place          Monisah Mehtabuddin, Mt. Eden High School

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Kindergarten to 2^nd Grade Poems/Essays:

1^st Place          Peni Lelea, Burbank Elementary School

2^nd Place         Valeria Guillen, Burbank Elementary School

3^rd Place         Katelyn Guelos, Southgate Elementary School

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3^rd to 5^th Grade Poems/Essays:

1^st Place           Heidi Chen, Lea's Christian School

2^nd Place          Juan Carlos Yboa, Park Elementary School

3^rd Place          Joshua Seiji, Lea's Christian School

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6^th to 8^th Grade Poems/Essays:

1^st Place           Emmanuel Delacruz, César Chávez Middle School

2^nd Place          Camilla San Juan, Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School

3^rd Place          Maykel Romero, Burbank Elementary School

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9^th to 12^th Grade Poems/Essays:

1^st Place            Guadalupe Romero, Leadership Public Schools - Hayward

2^nd Place           Bettina Marie Gerez, Leadership Public Schools - Hayward

3^rd Place          Osawekhoe Ehiorobo, Mt. Eden High School

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On Saturday, May 14, 2016, staff from Maintenance Services, City Manager’s Office, City Clerk’s Office, and Utilities & Environmental Services held the Annual Citywide Clean-Up Day event at Weekes Park.  A total of 134 people participated in the event by collecting litter and reporting abandoned debris in various neighborhoods.  

Check out our video of the event:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx9M9JcCf-c&feature=youtu.be]

A total of 33 cubic yards of trash and 7 cubic yards of recycled materials were collected.  Volunteers enjoyed a City-sponsored BBQ lunch and thank you gift.  The Kiwanis Club participated by barbequing all of the hamburgers and hotdogs. 

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This year, the City Clerk’s Office hosted a Community Engagement Fair during the lunchtime BBQ event to encourage residents to continue their civic engagement and community work.  The Mayor commenced the Fair with opening remarks, and music was provided by a local Chabot College DJ.  Thank you to the residents and staff who were able to attend!

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The Unite2Green Leaders recently conducted a waste audit at one of Hayward's apartment complexes. This means they sorted through a sample of the trashcans to find out what was inside.

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What did they find? Only 1.5% of the stuff in the trashcans was actually trash that should be landfilled. The remaining 98.5% of stuff were items that could be recycled, reused or composted. The Unite2Green Leaders found that 80% of the items could have been composted, including 30% that was edible food. Food waste and food scraps are green gold in Hayward because they can be turned into certified compost that we return to Hayward residents - for Free!

Unfortunately, all of the items in the trashcans will be sent to the landfill because they weren't sorted corrected. Learn about how to sort your trash in Hayward. 

One of the issues at this apartment complex was that they did not yet have organics (green cart) service. The Unite2Green Program helped them get their green carts and conducted an outreach event to train the residents on how to compost. Over 40 residents and staff attended the workshop. The Unite2Green Leaders led a sorting game to teach everyone which items go in which carts. As a thank you for participating, all residents received lunch and a free compost pail to take back to their kitchen.

The Unite2Green Leaders will be doing another waste audit at the same apartments in a month to see if their efforts have made an impact. Stay tuned!

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The second of five Unite2Green Hayward outreach activities was held during Light Up the Season on Thursday, December 3, 2015.

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The Unite2Green Leaders provided information in English and Spanish about energy efficiency, including demonstrations of LED bulbs and smart power strips, and information about home energy upgrade rebates. Leaders gave away 150 LED light bulbs and more than fifty people registered to win a “smart” power strip.

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Hayward hosted a free water efficient landscape class at the Main Library on Saturday, November 14, 2015. Cosponsored with the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency, these classes provide residents with practical information and ideas for designing, installing and maintaining landscapes that are colorful, attractive, and water efficient.

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The Water Wise Edible Gardening class was attended by about thirty people and focused on reducing water needs for seasonable vegetable gardening. Along with a traditional class lecture, participants each received a “cool season” vegetable to plant in their own pots to take home. The instructor, Frank Niccoli, has written the curriculum for numerous classes at Foothill College.

Having the class held in the Main Library was also an excellent opportunity to promote the Seed Lending Library, which operates as a community seed exchange in which borrowers are able to “check out” a wide variety of vegetable and flower seeds to plant in their gardens.

Additional landscape classes are expected to be held in the spring. The dates and topics will be announced as soon as the information is available. Customers will be notified with an insert in their water bill, as well as through other means such as the City’s website and Nextdoor, a neighborhood social network.

The first of five Unite2Green Hayward workshops was held on Saturday, October 31 on the topic of water conservation and efficiency. The Unite2Green Leaders ran concurrent half hour workshops in Spanish and English. The combined workshops had approximately fifty adult attendees, forty of which attended the Spanish language workshop.

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Unite2Green is a pilot program that is training “Leaders” - three high school students, one Chabot College student, and one Tiburcio Vasquez Promotora (Health Promoter) - to educate their neighbors in the Jackson Triangle about the effect that climate change will have on their health, finances, and security. The City is partnering with ICLEI and the Hayward Promise Neighborhood to implement Unite2Green Hayward with funding from the San Francisco Foundation. The Unite2Green Leaders will run five workshops between October and April on water, energy, recycling, environmental health, and climate change.

The water efficiency workshop covered the drought, cost-effective ways to reduce water waste, and the City’s water conservation programs. The Leaders included photos of their own efforts to reduce water consumption. The majority of residents who attended the workshop rent their homes and the workshop was tailored to renters, who typically do not pay their own water bills or receive the City’s educational materials as bill inserts.

The workshops were held at the HUSD Parent Resources HUB in conjunction with the Hayward Promise Neighborhood Fall Reading Festival. In addition to books, Halloween treats, and lunch, attendees received free water-efficient showerheads.

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The Utilities and Environmental Services Department, in partnership with Maintenance Services, offered a compost giveaway event on Saturday, September 19 at Barnes Court in front of the Hayward Animal Shelter.

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Literature promoting the event indicated a 10:00 a.m. start time, though residents started coming to the event at 9:20 a.m. Cars were queued the full length of Barnes Court well before 10:00 a.m. The message was that this organic compost is the product of what all residents and participating business place in the green organics carts and bins. A total of 2,460 one-cubic-feet bags were given away to residents. Each household received four bags. The staff from the Landscape and Streets Divisions worked very hard in the hot sun loading bags into vehicles and keeping the flow of cars moving. A big thank you goes out to them.

The event was promoted via a bill insert in garbage bills; copies of the flyer were also placed in the Revenue Division office and at both libraries; and the event was also posted on Nextdoor.com. A total of 379 residents completed a brief survey while they waited in line. The response from residents was overwhelmingly positive. They were happy to receive the compost and many asked how soon the next giveaway event would be scheduled.

Staff plans to offer similar events at least twice per year going forward. The compost was provided by Waste Management of Alameda County per the renewed franchise agreement that became effective in March this year. The City will receive 5,000 bags each calendar year.

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Hayward hosted the third of three free water efficient landscape classes at City Hall on Saturday, May 2. 

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Co-sponsored with the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency, these bi-annual classes provide residents with practical information and ideas for designing, installing and maintaining landscapes that are colorful, attractive, and water efficient.

With over fifty participants in attendance, the final class, Lawn Replacement, was taught by Alane Weber, a professional landscaper with over forty years of experience and the Educational Director of San Mateo’s Master Composter Program. Ms. Weber provided ideas on how to create a water-efficient and low maintenance landscape using native and drought tolerant plants. Class attendees were educated about the benefits of native plants as an alternative to lawns, as well as tips on the Bay Area’s water cycle to better manage water efficiency. In addition, Ms. Weber drew the names of about a dozen participants, each of whom received a water-efficient native plant to take home.

The first two classes, Water Wise Edible Gardening and Habitat Gardening, were both hands-on workshops, where in additional to a traditional lecture, class attendees also received water-efficient plants, vegetable seeds and bulbs to plant in their own pots to take home.

The next landscape classes will be held in the fall. The dates and topics will be announced as soon as the information is available. Customers will be notified with an insert in their water bills, as well as through other means such as the City’s website and flyers.