Community Corner
PHOTOS: Mormons Beautify Bonito Canyon Park
A group from San Clemente's Church of Latter-day Saints planted drought-tolerant landscaping in the park next to the Boys & Girls Club.
About 250 mothers and daughters, sons and fathers, 20-year-old Mormon missionaries and 3-year old infants dressed in bright yellow vests coated the hillside at Bonito Canyon Park Saturday morning to plant various shrubs and flowers.
Runoff from Bonito Canyon Park litters the parallel street and drains to the beach whenever it rains. San Clemente city staffers said a solution was necessary, so park coordinator Nathan Bluhm designed a plant plan to cover the slope with low-growing, native foliage to absorb the pesky runoff.
With the project blue-printed, the park just needed the hands to make it happen.
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“[Mormon Helping Hands] has been volunteering with the city for years,”
Bluhm said.
Each year, more than 100,000 members of Mormon Helping Hands take part in
various community service projects across California and Hawaii.
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They plant gardens, renovate and paint buildings, and engage in other projects to benefit their communities. This year, the members from a number of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in San Clemente spent their morning in Bonito Canyon.
Mark Chavez of the Beaches, Parks and Recreation Department observed the work for the day, happy that the on-going problem finally found a solution.
“This is helping all the way around,” Chavez said.
After four hours of digging, weeding, and planting, the LDS members helped the San Clemente community, and Bonito Canyon Park got a little brighter.
