September 08, 2022
LAWT News Service
Each year, a symbolic Super Bowl “Golden Shovel” is passed from the last Super Bowl host community to the next. The National Football League (NFL), Los Angeles Super Bowl LVI Host Committee, Los Angeles Rams, City of Inglewood and NFL partner Verizon will join forces for this iconic moment, which is the culmination of numerous Super Bowl LVI community greening projects in the Los Angeles region.
The ceremonial Golden Shovel pass will be followed by a project to beautify Darby Park, a neighborhood park adjacent to SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park. Dozens of community volunteers will help plant trees, remove trash and debris, and paint park furniture.
A small area of drought tolerant plants will also be planted. The current drought and water restrictions downsized original plans. Reclaimed water will be used to help establish the new trees and plants. Once water restrictions are lifted hundreds of additional flowering and drought tolerant plants will be added.
Public servants involved include James T. Butts; Mayor of Inglewood, Jack Groh; Director of NFL Environmental Program, Karina Herold; Vice President of Major Events, Los Angeles Super Bowl Host Committee, Susan Groh; Associate Director, NFL Environmental Program, and many more.
On Wednesday, September 7, 2022 at 9 a.m., Darby Park will receive beautification and energy towards planting trees there. Darby Park is located on 3400 W. Arbor Vitae, Inglewood, California. The project was officially labeled the “NFL Green Passing of the Golden Shovel and Community Greening Project,”
NFL Green began Super Bowl LVI community greening projects at Inglewood’s Edward Vincent Junior Park in September of 2021 – planting 56 trees in honor of Super Bowl LVI and beautifying the park. This final Super Bowl LVI community greening project brings the team back to Inglewood for a tree planting and beautification project at Darby Park, near SoFi stadium and Hollywood Park.
A dozen community greening projects were implemented throughout the Los Angeles region for Super Bowl LVI. They included the planting of shade trees, creation and expansion of community vegetable gardens in under resourced neighborhoods, the planting of pollinator attracting plants, restoration of a football-field sized kelp forest off California’s coast, and a reforestation project in the Angeles and Los Padres National Forests in partnership with Verizon to plant 5600 trees (100 trees for each Super Bowl) to restore areas damaged by wildfire.
The Super Bowl “Golden Shovel” will be passed to Arizona for Super Bowl LVII with an initial community greening project to plant low water usage desert trees in West Phoenix on October 18.