Ten Years of Friendship and Partnership
- Paige Combs
- 6 days ago
- 11 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
This past July 2025, we celebrated our 10th year as an organization! Over the coming year, we’ll reflect on our efforts to build a community around Coyote Creek, the largest river and watershed in the South Bay Area.
It Began With a Vision
Deb Kramer started as a consultant with a separate group and found that cleaning up trash just wasn’t enough. The City of San Jose wanted to work with her to expand her early success. Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful was born. The group's name began with a San Jose State University marketing class that noticed the devastation around the 64-mile Coyote Creek watershed and exposed some of the major issues in Santa Clara. This wasn’t just about trash: it was about our unhoused community, illegal dumping, and care and attention for our environment.
As KCCB began, the vision for Coyote Creek was to have clean waters, abundant wildlife, and natural beauty that everyone could enjoy. Deb hosted creek cleanup events, gave presentations at colleges, and attended outreach events to bring awareness to Coyote Creek. In 2015, our journey began with the City of San José’s Environmental Services Stormwater Department, who not only funded our early efforts to clean up Coyote Creek, but also supported nature walks, bike rides, and community science events. Their belief in our mission helped us start what would become a growing community of creek stewards.
Finally, KCCB was able to do some real groundwork and prioritize its community and watershed. The organization’s board developed a Strategic Plan in 2023 with a revised mission, values, and strategic priorities to engage, educate, and encourage the community to take action, learn, and play along a healthy Coyote Creek.
How We Have Grown
The City’s grant allowed KCCB to do more than primarily clean up Coyote Creek (including a 10-ton cleanup day). We were able to expand into outreach activities with colleges, such as San Jose State University, West Valley College, and Santa Clara University. We advertised and were involved in regional events, such as Earth Day and Viva Calle San Jose. The involvement from the community was notable, and partnerships with other organizations took off, including hosting an AmeriCorps team, restoration with San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory, organizing Sunset Walks with San Jose’s Parks Department and rangers, and in 2017 partnering with the popular BioBlitz program, the BioBlitz Club.
Building Our Team
As KCCB added activities, staff grew beside the founder Deb Kramer. Our team initially involved people you may know and remember, including Maya Briones (still volunteering), Colter Cook (still volunteering), Hop Le, Matthew Massey, Jeweliette Pearson, Steven Wang, Lucy West, Aja Yee, who all helped with essential aspects of our programming.
We also became a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in April 2017. Along with this designation, we formed a board of directors and started raising funds through other means, including individuals and corporations. This larger structure allowed us to think more creatively about grants, rather than being dependent on one grantor and program.
Like many other organizations that were halted during the COVID-19 pandemic, KCCB had a short pause in 2020. However, we remained resilient, and around this time, our Event Coordinator, Rebekah Cotton became joined us, and she set out to build our event infrastructure with this down time. Then, she became our first Business Manager, ensuring that our grants are budgeted and administered correctly while keeping our business practices healthy.
Now in the field, we have Annette McMillan and Néstor de la O Vargas , who lead volunteers for our BioBlitz events, creek cleanups, and restoration. There is Sara Koepnick , who shares her passion for cleanups as a team leader. We also have Jessica Ruppert keeping our events organized and running smoothly, and sharing her passion for nature at BioBlitz events, while Molly Curtis grows our education program, where hundreds of elementary school students in Santa Clara County receive Scout's Adventure presentations.
Over time, we have expanded our volunteer engagement. We have people who will show up to events for their first time, some who have been involved for months, and some who have been involved with KCCB for years. Long-term volunteers you may know and admire include Bruce and Alie Victorine, who have now been active with KCCB for over 10 years! And, Efren Ibaretta and Karan Gathani aren't far behind.
Building Our Community
From the very beginning, Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful has thrived on one powerful belief: together, we go farther. Partnerships have been our driving force—building a legacy of connection with nature.
We learned the ropes of creek cleanups from the South Bay Clean Creeks Coalition.
Together with our volunteers, we removed tons of trash from the creek, but one particular stretch of land captured our imagination. Could the Coyote Meadows area, which includes a landfill, trails, and a trestle, become a park? That vision turned into action as over 25 community groups came together, inspired by the City of San Jose’s Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Director Angel Rios’ rallying words: “Think Big.” We did just that! A grant from the Open Space Authority (OSA) helped launch the Coyote Meadows Redevelopment Concept Plan—turning underutilized land into a vision for an urban nature haven. With our partners, we are supporting the Five Wounds Trail development and celebrating the opening of a new Coyote Creek Trail segment.
In Coyote Valley, we joined forces with 11 passionate organizations, led by Green Foothills and Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance, in the Protect Coyote Valley effort to raise awareness about the value of the region, resulting in the purchase of nearly 1,000 acres of vital natural and agricultural land for future generations. After the 2017 Coyote Creek flood, San José voters passed a measure that helped secure this important landscape for flood protection, aquifer recharge, and biodiversity. We continue to collaborate to bring awareness to Coyote Valley through community bike tours of Coyote Valley organized by Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) and the Open Space Authority.
Additionally, we have formed strong collaborations with Merav Vonshak at BioBlitz Club, who has helped us host over 90 BioBlitz events with over 4,000 participants all over the Coyote Creek Watershed. These docent-led events invite explorers to become community scientists by documenting what they find in iNaturalist while learning about the interconnectivity of nature. This is an essential learning space for KCCB members that has gained a lot of momentum, where individuals can learn more about the local environment and flora and fauna that exist in Santa Clara County.
Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful’s artistic side comes together through our fun partnership with Paul J. Gonzalez which started in 2015 when Deb met Paul, who is a muralist and hyper-local artist with a passion for learning. Our first mural project was in 2021 at Empire Gardens Elementary School and was his 200th mural! Together, we developed three murals and an art treatment on the William Street Bridge in San Jose that brightened up these spaces. Other murals include Heller County Park and Russo/McEntee Academy. He now works with Molly on the Scouts' Adventure Education program, teaching kids more about the environment and animals in their community.
During the pandemic in 2020, our partnerships kept us going—and growing. Together with Grassroots Ecology and funded by the Open Space Authority, we brought nature education online and in-person when people needed it most. Our shared work continues with Santa Clara County Parks for Coyote Creek Habitat Day. Other exciting collaborations include:
San Francisco Bay Wildlife Society for Wheels and Wildlife
San Jose Conservation Corps' Resilience Corps members
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory for Baylands restoration
BioBlitz Club, engaging community scientists of all ages
Ten Years Later
Ten years later, KCCB has six staff members and 1,500 volunteers each year, and over 100 events that we host. Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful participates in dozens of community events while also cultivating over 40 partnerships with dozens of community groups, nonprofits, agencies, and neighborhoods. The group started with something small and has grown through its dedicated partnerships, volunteers, and passionate staff. We know that it is not just about cleanups, it is about inspiring our community to take initiative and create localized change to build a better future together.
Inspiring Environmental Stewardship Through Education
Education remains central to our mission because students are our future and are stewards of our environment. As we’ve grown, we’ve connected with our local school communities in multiple ways. Whether it’s hosting class field trips, making school presentations, or offering college projects, we are always looking to connect young people to nature and Coyote Creek. Grants from Valley Water and Open Space Authority allowed us to work with San José State University’s Environmental Studies class to develop an engaging curriculum.
Expanding Education
Many professors at San Jose State University have offered students the opportunity to work on a project with us, including website design, database development, trash assessments, hosting a conference, and community service. Through funding from the Open Space Authority, we created many of the educational materials we use in the classroom and while tabling. CommUniverCity's Watershed in a Box kits brought hands-on learning to homes and classrooms, even during the COVID-19 lockdown. Interns from the Santa Clara University Arrupe Center also helped develop the Watershed in a Box kits.
Our latest effort is Scout’s Adventure, a dynamic and engaging program that transports K-5th grade students straight into the heart of the Coyote Creek Watershed, led by Education Coordinator Molly Curtis. This project was supported by generous funding from many agencies, including Santa Clara County, California Coastal Commission’s Whale Tail grant, Applied Materials Foundation, and the City of San Jose. We recently received the 2025 Friends of the San Francisco Estuary Award for Outstanding Environmental Project.
This decade of impact has been driven by a powerful network of support, from local agencies, grassroots groups, volunteers, and elected leaders. Thousands of people have been introduced to the beauty of Coyote Creek.
Together, we are not just keeping Coyote Creek beautiful; we are keeping the spirit of community alive, one person and one partnership at a time.
Recognition Reflects Collective Effort
We are grateful to have received recognition for our work in environmental stewardship and community engagement. These awards reflect the collective efforts of our dedicated volunteers, partners, and supporters who make our mission possible. While we are proud of these acknowledgments, they serve as a reminder of the importance of protecting and celebrating the natural spaces in our community. We remain committed to continuing this work in collaboration and with care for the environment we all share. Below are a few ways we have been recognized.
2015 Outstanding Environmental Project Award: South Bay Creeks Collaborative On September 18, 2015, Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful was honored as part of the South Bay Creeks Collaborative, a partnership of nine organizations, to receive the Friends of the San Francisco Estuary’s 2015 Outstanding Environmental Project Award. This award recognized the collaborative's collective efforts to restore, protect, and raise awareness about the vital urban waterways that feed into the San Francisco Bay. The Collaborative brought together public agencies, nonprofits, and community groups with a shared goal of improving the health and visibility of local creeks. Through coordinated cleanups, educational outreach, and stewardship activities, the Collaborative has made a tangible difference in the ecological health of South Bay creeks.
John Muir Association’s 2015 Conservation Initiative Award On April 23, 2016, Deb Kramer, on behalf of Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful (KCCB), received this, a special honor recognizing her leadership in community-based environmental stewardship. The award reflected how KCCB has mobilized the San José community to restore Coyote Creek, hosting monthly events and engaging a wide range of partners, including local schools, colleges, neighborhood groups, the U.S. Marine Corps, and Downtown Streets Team. The award reflects the strength of this collaborative effort and the shared commitment to protecting our local watershed.
2017 Coyote Creek Flood Coverage On February 21, 2017, Coyote Creek flooded due to severe storms and overflow from the Anderson Reservoir spillway. In the days following the disaster, KCCB played a key role in mobilizing over a thousand volunteers to assist with recovery efforts in two of the neighborhoods hardest hit. As recognition for this work, Deb Kramer was featured on NBC Bay Area’s Bay Area Proud.
In 2018, State Senator Jim Beall honored Deb Kramer with the Women of the Year Trailblazer Award for her dedication to flood recovery. Through her efforts to organize community members and bring volunteers together in a time of crisis, Deb helped elevate KCCB as a visible and trusted leader in both volunteerism and environmental action.
San Jose Conservation Corps + Charter School 2022 Resilient Community Award During the COVID-19 pandemic, San José Mayor Sam Liccardo partnered with the San Jose Conservation Corps to launch the Resilience Corps, a program engaging young people in projects that support communities in need. One of the teams focused on environmental work, and over the course of two years, we had the opportunity to host several Resilience Corps members. We were honored to receive the 2022 Resilient Community Award for this collaboration, which provided youth with hands-on experience in environmental stewardship while making a meaningful impact in the community.
2025 Friends of the San Francisco Estuary Award for Outstanding Environmental Project Our Scouts’ Adventure to Coyote Creek program was selected for this award, one of three awards presented at the biennial San Francisco Estuary Conference. Accompanying this award, we were selected to provide a poster presentation.
We continue to bring community members together to learn about and take care of nature in our award-winning way: with smiles, hopefulness, and fun. You can view all the recognition we've received.
Planning for Our Future
Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful is excited to be showcasing our team and spotlighting the amazing work they are doing out in the community. This Spring we have an anniversary party planned, and the community can expect to see regular posts on our social media where you can read more about their stories.
How We Plan to Grow
Our staff has lots of ideas on how we can grow and share our love of this special watershed with a larger community, specifically:
Expanding activities to meet Vietnamese- and Spanish-speaking audiences
Developing trail-based projects
Implementing the new Creek Quest education project
Restoration of impacted areas along Coyote Creek
Building the Coyote Meadows natural park
We recognize that a major gap in our work has been accessibility for our Vietnamese and Spanish-speaking neighbors, who make up a large percentage of residents in the Coyote Creek watershed. Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful plans to begin developing environmental education and recreation that is available to various audiences, not just our English-speaking community. Our goal is to start with Coyote Creek trail walks.
Another idea of ours is to begin trail improvements within our parks, where we can begin mobilizing volunteers to either develop new paths or restore old trails within the San Jose trail network. This effort will involve a lot of collaboration with Save Our Trails and the City of San Jose’s Trail team for planning, design, construction, maintenance, and rehabilitation of trails and related facilities. We can even add more art, such as murals, sculptures, and gardens. Walking tours, geocaching, and mindfulness activities are events we'd like to cultivate with our diverse community who live in Coyote Creek's neighborhoods.
We are excited to implement a new education project to involve our youth in learning and enjoying the creek. Creek Quest will take students on exploratory walks to nearby parks with creeks, providing an experiential opportunity to observe nature and learn about local watersheds. This program will be available to schools and after-school programs within walking distance of designated parks.
Lastly, we are excited about working with the City of San José and the surrounding communities to create a new natural park called Coyote Meadows. This has been a dream of ours for a long time, and now we have reached a moment and opportunity where we can turn this vision into a reality for Santa Clara County to enjoy.
Coyote Creek will never be completely rid of trash, but we have now reached a point where we don’t have to be in a state of emergency, where we are trying to recover our creek and watershed. Now, our community can begin working on the restoration of Coyote Creek in specific segments in partnership with other groups. We are very excited to begin these projects and make the creek a space to explore and enjoy with one another.
With Gratitude to Our Partners
None of this would be possible without our dedicated partners, grantors, and volunteers who keep our work going. Below is a list, although not comprehensive, to show our appreciation for being where we are today. View our Partners page for a complete list.
BioBlitz Club City of San Jose City of San Jose Environmental Services San Jose Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services County of Santa Clara Grassroots Ecology Open Space Authority Santa Clara Valley Paul J. Gonzalez Art Studio POST | San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory San Jose Conservation Corps and Charter School San Jose State University Santa Clara County Parks Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance South Bay Clean Creek Coalition The Trash Punx Valley Water Whale Tale License Plate |
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