The Pasadena Beautiful Foundation has long been known for its coveted Golden Arrow Awards, presented each spring to area homeowners who have worked to enhance their front gardens through innovative landscaping concepts.
“We’re known principally [for the] Golden Arrow Awards but we do so many more things than that,” says Chuck Livingstone , who has served as the foundation’s president for the past three years.
Since its inception in 1960, the nonprofit, whose founding members included some of Pasadena’s most influential residents of the day, has kept to its stated mission of working with individuals, community organizations, and the city to restore, renew, and protect Pasadena’s parks, urban forests, and public spaces.
Like an expansive root system, the foundation’s beautification eff orts and collective green thumb are seen throughout Pasadena. Volunteers “tidy up, pick up trash, trim the garden,” explains board member Susan Osen about Wednesday Workdays, held for an hour each week throughout most of the year.
Foundation and community members have spruced up Singer Park, the Pasadena Senior Center, Pasadena Central Library, and many other locations around town during this allotted time.
Earlier this year, Pasadena Beautiful replanted several shrubs and flowers that once filled the landscape surrounding Parsons Corp. parking lots along West Walnut Street and Fair Oaks Avenue. Mixed-use development and an urban village are in the works to occupy the roughly 6.4 acres there.
More than just stewards of the Golden Arrow Awards, Pasadena Beautiful Foundation continues its mission of greening the city of Pasadena—which for the past 28 years has been the recipient of the Tree City USA award established by the Arbor Day Foundation.
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