On January 9, 2017, a group of 45 students from Luis Valdez Leadership Academy in San Jose, California came together with Gachina Landscape Management to beautify the campus and provide green spaces as part of the school's first Community Service Action Day.

Before the Gachina crews guided the students on the planting of the trees and herbs (that were provided by Gachina), employee Francisco Ruiz led a presentation focusing on the core values of Gachina and reviewed safety procedures.

The five Gachina employees who volunteered were happy and humbled by the dedication of the students, who all come from a low-socioeconomic background. Many of them will be the first in their family to graduate from high school and attend college. More than a third of the students, including several of the female students, expressed having an interest in landscape as their family members work in landscape. They were excited to learn that the landscape field welcomes women. At Gachina, half of the leadership team are women. At the end of the day, the students realized that landscape is not only a job, but a career opportunity and that at Gachina "it enriches the life of everyone and everything we touch."

During the core values presentation, the students connected with John's dedication and passion to the community. At one point, they asked if they could meet him (Editor's note: John passed away a little more than a year earlier) to thank him for having a kind heart, for donating everything that Gachina provided and for making their school more beautiful. The students wrote thank you cards communicating their feelings about the day and their admiration of John.

Gachina Landscape donated approximately $10,000 in plant material, labor, equipment, expertise and love to this project.