Cultivating Brighter Futures at California Schools

Giving back to our communities isn’t just a belief at BrightView, but something our teams put into action. At the Mountain View branch in Santa Clara, Calif., that commitment is taking root in local schools.

The team launched an initiative for 2026 to deepen its community engagement. Spearheaded by Branch Manager Cody Wallace and intern Karinna Dillard, who is focused on community engagement, they found neighborhood schools to partner with to educate the students on the importance of plants and the environment.

“Four schools stood out to us for their staff’s enthusiasm and passion for teaching children about where our food comes from and the importance of native plants,” Dillard said. “We recognized the potential impact these teachers would have on their students.”

BrightView partnered with the four schools in the Santa Clara County to organize volunteer days where team members worked alongside students and staff to build and enhance garden spaces:

• Theaurkauf Elementary School – Infrastructure was provided for 12 garden beds and a small herb garden
• Pomeroy Elementary School – Former asphalt spaces were transformed into a usable, natural space that included a dry creek bed, more than 150 plants, and a grassy knoll, all according to the state’s biomes of woodlands, meadows, and coastal chaparral
• Don Callejon Elementary School – Two garden beds were installed
• John Sutter Elementary School – The school’s pre-existing community garden space was refurbished, unwanted trees were removed, weed fabric was provided, and an orange tree was planted

“Each project began with an outreach to the local schools, sharing our goal of bringing hands-on learning about food production into children’s education,” Dillard said. “From there, we collaborated with each individual school to meet them where they were in terms of infrastructure and educational goals.”

In total, BrightView team members helped deliver more than 300 California native plants, 12 garden beds, and soil, along with the necessary supplies to develop a learning program. All of this was made possible through support from BrightView and its vendors. Notable suppliers include Heritage Landscape Supply, Milwaukee, Devil Mountain Nursery, and GreenWaste.

These new spaces have had an almost immediate effect with the students and staff at the schools.

“We are sending a huge, heartfelt thank you from Pomeroy for your support in completely transforming our CA Native corridor,” said Audrey Hunton, a teacher and the Garden Coordinator at Pomeroy Elementary. “The students are so proud [and] they’ve been stopping me all week to point out which plants they helped put in the ground. We even sighted a few butterflies checking out their new ecosystem already.”

The branch will continue to visit the four schools throughout the year and years to come to provide additional garden supplies and ongoing assistance, as needed.

“Our team has been very excited to take part in these projects,” Dillard said. “We all recognize the shift in education away from real-life, nature-based learning toward technology and virtual learning, especially in the South Bay. Each of us hold a love for gardening, so the opportunity to share our passion to local youth and bring hands-on learning experiences into schools has been incredibly rewarding.”