A group of volunteers grabbed shovels at Churchill Park on Saturday, helping plant 50 new trees as Dallas prepares to host the 2026 World Cup. <\/p>\n
The event was organized by the City of Dallas, the city’s Park and Recreation Department, and the North Texas World Cup Organizing Committee. <\/p>\n
The goal was to make the city more welcoming and more sustainable.<\/p>\n
Churchill Park has been a community gathering spot since 1959, and leaders said this project adds more life to a beloved space.<\/p>\n
At the tree planting event, Dallas City Council Member Bill Roth said the park is \u201cone of the most used places in town,\u201d adding that \u201ceverybody loves it and we\u2019re going to make it even better today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Families, college students, and children worked side\u2011by\u2011side as instructors guided them through the planting process.<\/p>\n
“I mean, this is very literal, but we’re planting a seed, you know, and we’re putting these trees in the ground, really doing our part to just make it beautiful, said volunteer Kemi Okeowo.<\/p>\n
Her three-year-old daughter, Oyin, brought some experience. <\/p>\n
\u201cI planted a tree at school,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s good that Dallas is trying to find the middle ground between hosting the World Cup and making sure the city is nice for people to come,\u201d said volunteer Janiah Cooper.<\/p>\n
Cooper and her sorority sisters from Alpha Kappa Alpha came out to volunteer together. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe get to come and spend time outside and just get our hands dirty,” said Megan Manning, who added that beautifying the environment is one of their program initiatives, too. <\/p>\n
The idea isn’t just to beautify the city as it prepares to welcome international visitors; it’s also about being a host city that balances sustainability.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow are we operating in a sustainable and environmentally friendly place?\u201d said Monica Paul, president of the North Texas World Cup Organizing Committee. \u201cThis [tree planting] helps curb some of the carbon emissions from hosting events.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those are the values Mar Rivero and Fernando Villanueva came to teach their kids. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re here to teach the children about the environment, how to plant, how to take more care of our world,\u201d Rivero said.<\/p>\n
She added that she hopes people take care of their city regardless of hosting big events. <\/p>\n
Andrew Dockrill, who came with his toddler, Parker, said it’s an exciting way to prepare for the World Cup. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll get to meet people from all over the world and interact with a lot of different cultures,\u201d said Dockrill. \u201cFor everyone to come together in this unique time in the world for competition and sport\u2026 it gets us all together and out in good spirits.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of volunteers grabbed shovels at Churchill Park on Saturday, helping plant 50 new trees as Dallas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3691,102,104,103,18957],"class_list":{"0":"post-245568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-2026-world-cup","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-headlines","11":"tag-dallas-news","12":"tag-fifa-world-cup"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}