Community members from Hyde Park and surrounding neighborhoods gathered on April 19 for a cleanup of Jackson Park and a renovation of the landscaping surrounding Hyde Park Academy High School.
The service event was held in anticipation of Earth Day and was organized by the Obama Foundation in collaboration with several other organizations, including Emerald South Economic Development Collaborative, Chicago Parks Foundation, and Jackson Park Conservancy.
Attendees gathered in front of Hyde Park Academy against the backdrop of the Obama Presidential Center site, scheduled to open in mid-2026.
“Every year we like to pull together volunteers from all across Chicago for special projects around Earth Day,” said Joshua Harris, vice president of public engagement for the Obama Foundation.
Participants helped dig and prepare the gardens in front of Hyde Park Academy as music from the check-in table played through speakers. The attendees also worked together to plant and water several perennials that will decorate the exterior of the building.
Landscape architect Ernie Wong was recruited by Ghian Foreman, president and CEO of Emerald South Economic Development Collaborative, to design the new landscape for the perimeter and campus of Hyde Park Academy.
“Ghian calls me up and says, ‘Hey, we have this initiative to try to clean up Hyde Park High School.’ And me, I kind of got a little distraught because I’m a Kenwood Broncos alum, so I was like, ‘What? Why would I want to do that?’” Wong jokingly recalled.
Wong is the founding principal and president of Chicago-based landscape architecture and urban design firm Site Design Group, continuing a family legacy from his father, who was also an architect. His company has been involved in many landscaping projects all over the city as well as at the University of Chicago, such as the Arts Lawn and Campus South Walk. The firm is leading the local landscape architecture for the Obama Presidential Center.
“Everybody talks about a new landscape and what that does. What people never talk about is the amount of maintenance that requires,” Wong said. “Dealing with volunteers is really difficult and especially [with] this many volunteers. So, [today] we really had to make sure that the planting design was simple enough but beautiful enough in order to really make an impact on the front of the school.”
At a second site within Jackson Park, another group of volunteers fanned out to pick up trash, starting from the soccer fields and continuing onto Wooded Island towards the Garden of the Phoenix. Others worked to mulch trees alongside the walking paths, carting around large mounds of soil.
Organizing staff manned a lunch table, providing light snacks and water for the attendees. The Obama Foundation also hosted 30-minute guided tours throughout the day, showing interested participants around the perimeter of the Presidential Center.
Louise McCurry, a member of the Hyde Park community for 56 years, said that the occasion marked a continuation of longstanding efforts by many residents such as herself towards the maintenance and care of Jackson Park. Now 75 years old and in a wheelchair, she continues to actively participate in such events.
“You don’t live forever. And so you celebrate when you can, when you’ve got cherry blossoms… when you’ve got trees that are alive,” McCurry said. “You keep them alive.”
McCurry has worked with several local organizations throughout her time here, including by previously serving as the president of the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference (HPKCC), a community organization that hosts multigenerational activities and discusses major issues that affect the future of the neighborhood. She is also involved with Jackson Park Conservatory.
“The idea is to take Jackson Park, which is the most-used park on the South Side, and make it safe for families and children, and for critters, and for dogs and cats,” McCurry said. “Parks should be democratic institutions where people… from all races, from all generations, can come and be together.”
Despite its recent efforts to promote local development, the Obama Center’s construction has not been without controversy. Community members and organizations have raised concerns, ranging from availability of affordable housing and residents potentially being forced out due to rising property taxes, to the detraction from public parkland space for the construction of the privately owned complex.
However, Harris thinks the arrival of the Center will have a positive impact on the community through spaces like Home Court, an athletics facility just across the street from Hyde Park Academy and part of the Obama Center complex. The building is slated to feature a multipurpose gymnasium with an NBA-size basketball court, fitness equipment, and other sports amenities. It will serve as a hub for various leadership and community engagement opportunities for youth and adults alike.
“I think sustainability and obviously civic participation are two important aspects of the Obama Foundation and our mission. And so anytime that we can get people together in the community to also give back, the better,” Harris said. “This is a lovely event that I look forward to every single year.”
Local resident Travis Williams, one of the many volunteers manning the wheelbarrows in Jackson Park, has been involved with the HPKCC for three years and recently became its president. Speaking to the role that he hopes the Obama Center can play within the community, Williams said that he hopes it can bring stability and a boost to small businesses by providing more traffic and visitors to the area.
“Some people are for it, some people aren’t. But I’m for it,” Williams said. “Whatever’s going to bring money into the community that we can use for other things, that’d be great.”
The large turnout and diversity of participating groups highlighted the potential for synergistic partnerships between the Center and community. McCurry particularly emphasized the importance of young people to sustain these efforts.
“We need young people,” McCurry said. “I’m 75. We will die off and there’ll be nobody. So we want to get back to the young people.”
Harris hopes the Obama Foundation can continue to facilitate such engagement in collaboration with programs like My Brother’s Keepers Alliance and Girls Opportunity Alliance, both of which form other partnerships between the Foundation and Hyde Park Academy. These initiatives aim to connect local grassroots organizations and schools, educate young boys and girls about career opportunities, and help empower them to effect positive change on their community as well as the wider world.
Many of the older volunteers and staff mentioned a sense of wanting to give back to the community as a driving force for their participation.
“I grew up on 51st and Kimbark. I’m a native of the community, so it’s been nice to be able to come back and to contribute,” Wong said. “Given everything that’s going on in the world right now, this is a really fun event to get all the stupid shit that’s going on off of [people’s] minds and bring people together. I mean, you can’t go wrong with plants.”
