SAN JOSE, Calif. - The San Jose Earthquakes visited Meadows Parks in San Jose Wednesday June 24. Ryan Cochrane, Quincy Amarikwa, Antonio Ribeiro, and members of the front office staff were in attendance for the Quakes to assist Our City Forest plant 13 trees with the help of student and parent volunteers from the Santa Clara Unified School district.
After being greeted by Our City Forest's "Tree" Mascot, the participants were given a short tutorial on the correct way to plant and irrigate the new trees. The players and volunteers then went to work digging and shoveling in the heat of the California summer afternoon. Cochrane, Amarikwa and Ribeiro made quite the formidable team as the three jumped from tree to tree to aid the children already working and digging.
After the harder part of the afternoon was over, the players congratulated the children and volunteers on a job well done and to wrap up the day, the Quakes signed player cards and posed for photo ops with the children.
Later this summer, he Quakes will be hosting a Going Green night, presented by Comcast, on Saturday, July 25 when they take on DC United at Buck Shaw Stadium. The game will kick off at 7:30 p.m. PT and will be broadcast live on Fox Soccer Channel. The Quakes have teamed up with Green-E Energy and Santa Clara's Green Power to off-set stadium energy use for the game by donating a percentage of the ticket revenue to the program. Additional tickets sold will also be used to off-set energy use for the remainder of the 2009 season.
The night will also feature two giveaway items; reusable tote bags, presented by Comcast, given to the first 5,000 fans and flower seed packets, courtesy of America the Beautiful Fund, to the first 1,000 fans. Fans will also have a chance to tour the Santa Clara University solar decathlon house prior to the game, while children will be able to participate in a pre-game activity provided by a representative from Our City Forest. Additionally, Codexus is donating 250 tickets to bring kids from the San Jose community out to the game to learn about "going green".
Fans who drive a Hybrid car to the game receive $5 off parking, while patrons who take VTA or Caltrain to the match and present their valid VTA ticket at the box office will be able to buy a $20 sideline ticket valued at $35.
In another event prior to the match on July 16, Earthquakes players and staff will work with employees of Xilinx, a semi-conductor company, to clean up Hellyer Park in San Jose.
