Every Friday, the Mean Green Team bands together to work on various service projects in order to give back to their community. The Mean Green Team is the Beautification Committee of the Point Loma Association who dedicates their time to spruce up 17 different public areas in Point Loma. According to Mean Green Team member Cecilia Carrick, the team does everything from planting, weeding, trimming, and even cleaning off graffiti. While the Point Loma Association has been around for 55 years, the Mean Green Team was founded in the 1990s. Today, the team is around 50 members strong with roughly 20 to 25 members participating at any given community service event. They pride themselves on their diversity that range from doctors and lawyers to nurses, teachers, and even submariners who all work together to achieve the association’s mission: to improve their neighborhood.
Before beginning most of their projects, the team also takes it upon themselves to gather and collect funding grants from the city, county, and private individuals to assist with the community projects. When they face a project they might not be able to tackle alone, they are never hesitant to reach out to other community members such as the police department and team up with them to complete tasks.
One of the team’s most predominant projects is “Sticks on Fire” on Nimitz Boulevard near the Point Loma welcome sign. The Mean Green Team raised $120,000 and replaced the previously existing median with red blooming aloe that gave this site its fitting name. Aside from garden work and landscaping, the team also works on community tasks such as bringing down excessive billboards on Rosecrans and beautifying local utility boxes. Carrick mentioned that the team finds local artists to paint utility boxes throughout Point Loma. The team then reviews the artwork and makes sure that it fits well within designated neighborhoods before moving forward with any given artist. Not only do these painted utility boxes add character to their community, but also aids in deterring any unwanted graffiti as well. The Mean Green Team’s 17 areas it takes care of in Point Loma include: Ed’s Triangle, Pork Chops, Nimitz West, Dana Middle School, Dewey Elementary School, Soto Street Shed, Liberty Station/NTC Rose Garden, Tennyson Triangle, The Village, Canon Hiking Trail, Point Loma Park, Rosecrans Jacarandas, Catalina/Canon Median, Nimitz Median, Poe Triangle, and Sandy Beach on Shelter Island.
After every team meetup on early Friday mornings, the volunteers continue to spend time together for a well-deserved coffee or food rest at locations near the site they were working at that morning. The Mean Green Team does not come together to only volunteer and go home but they also enjoy spending time with one another – many of the volunteers have been loyal to the team for more than 20 years. The team does great things to achieve their mission of improving their neighborhood and look forward to continuing to give back to their community as much as possible. For more information on the Mean Green Team, visit pointloma.org.