On Sunday, September 22, a crew of 230 athlete Westmont Warriors teamed up with the Bucket Brigade and community partners to improve neighborhood walking trails surrounding Cold Spring Elementary School.

Westmont athletes work on the trail in front of Cold Spring Elementary School  

To restore damaged trails and increase overall pedestrian safety along busy sections of Sycamore Canyon and Cold Spring roads, volunteers wielded wheelbarrows, shovels, and rakes to move more than 50 tons of gravel (provided by Lash Construction and Santa Barbara County Public Works), 45 tons of decomposed granite (donated by Santa Barbara Stone), and multiple dump-truck loads of wood chips. They also trimmed overgrown vegetation and planted and mulched agave cuttings along the school front.

Workday volunteers spread recycled road base ahead of decomposed granite

Led by the Bucket Brigade, the volunteer workday emerged from a traffic-safety assessment orchestrated by the Coalition for Sustainable Transportation (COAST) in longtime coordination with Cold Spring School parents and the national Safe Routes to School program.

This safety and uplift project also helps strengthen community resilience. As diverse stakeholders worked together to solve a common problem, they built a foundation of mutual trust, collaboration, and coordination — critical components for any neighborhood that wants to respond successfully to natural disasters and other community crises.

Cold Spring kids on their new safe route to school

Big buckets of thanks to our community partners on this project: Cold Spring Elementary School, Westmont College, COAST, Cold Springs Landscapes, Santa Barbara Stone, Santa Barbara County Public Works, and Montecito Trails Foundation!