A new leaf

Our City Forest founder Rhonda Berry is stepping down as president and CEO after 34 years and will transition to board advisor. The nonprofit’s board of directors has appointed Tara Sreekrishnan as executive director. Sreekrishnan is the co-founder of local nonprofit Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action and serves on the Santa Clara County School Board.

Our City Forest (OCF) was founded in 1994, but Berry began creating it in 1992 with the vision “One Million People, One Million Trees.” Most of OCF’s efforts toward this goal were funded with $35 million in grants and donations.

“Most people think that the city pays for our projects and trees because ‘City’ is in our name, yet over all the years, OCF has raised its own funding to finance its planting projects—about 95% of them,” Berry said in a release.

This funding has financed the trees, materials, coordination, planting and three-year stewardship of some 85,000 large canopy trees and 25,000 shrubs along streets and at nearly every San Jose school and park. Other OCF efforts include a year of full-time, paid on-the-job training to nearly 700 AmeriCorps service members; mobilization and training of some 175,000 community members; and the building and operation of the OCF community nursery and training center and its outdoor education center.

Our City Forest will host a fundraising gala, Growing Our Future, on Friday, Sept. 25, to celebrate Berry’s legacy.

Fair game

The 82nd Santa Clara County Fair is set for Aug. 19-23, when attendees can enjoy carnival rides, live entertainment, pony rides and a petting zoo. As ever, the fair will also feature competitive exhibitions, including livestock and agricultural competitions, home arts displays and educational demonstrations.

Other attractions include camel rides, pig races, a reptile show and an interactive butterfly exhibit where fairgoers get to feed the butterflies. Also on the agenda are a live mural-painting competition and Lucha Libre-style wrestling matches.

Main stage entertainment includes Freestyle Friday with DJs Brotha Reese, Chuy Gomez, Hugo Gomez, Frank Morales and Looney Tunes.

For more information and tickets, visit thefair.org. Tickets will also be on sale at the main entrance to the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds.