Ballona Creek Renaissance presented Awards of Excellence to three Culver City High School students June 25.
Emma Kurihara, Priya Patel, Yvonne Ball and Zacky Ezedin were honored for their longtime high quality volunteer contributions to BCR’s work on behalf of community and environment. Each received a personalized, illustrated and framed certificate and a $250 check.
Ezedin has begun a summer program at Cornell University in New York. As a freshman, he was the first CCHS student to connect with BCR’s Creekside Native Plant Learning Garden project at Culver City Middle School.
With a strong interest in gardening, Ezedin brought skills and enthusiasm to the planning and preparation phase and was able to continue spot involvement with advice or hands-on help one-on-one or with a group during the planting and care phase. BCR also appreciated his initiative to test the soil. At Cornell, he will be studying plant pathology.
As a junior, Kurihara asked BCR to advise her for her Girl Scout Gold Award project to design and implement a native plant garden at Culver City Middle School. In addition, she (and her mom Carol Inge) helped in BCR’s Baldwin Hills Earth Day restoration.
Later Kurihara provided great education and outreach at BCR’s Fiesta La Ballona booth and creek cleanups at Overland (pictured) and Centinela Avenues. This Fall, she will be attending Brown University in Rhode Island.
Whether with father Shas Patel or alone, Patel was especially effective as a restoration and gardening volunteer at BCR’s Creekside Native Plant Learning Garden at Culver City Middle School and along the Culver Boulevard bike and pedestrian path in Del Rey.
Patel plans to begin her studies at West Los Angeles College in the Fall, majoring in art.
Ball actively and participates as an effective planting and restoration volunteer for BCR’s Creekside Native Plant Learning Garden project at Culver City Middle School and BCR’s Ballona Creek cleanups at Centinela Avenue. She will start West Los Angeles College in the fall and will study an education.