INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Dustin Young and other volunteers on Saturday planted 56 trees at the Edward Vincent Park in Inglewood.

The number of trees planted represents Super Bowl LVI, which is scheduled to take place at SoFi Stadium in February.

“It’s not fun, but it’s hard work, and hard work pays off,” Young said. “It’s a process.”

Young is the co-founder of Our Own, a nonprofit organization helping underserved communities in Inglewood and the greater Los Angeles area. It is one of 56 local organizations to receive a $10,000 grant as part of the Super Bowl LVI Legacy Program. He explained that the money will help fund his STEM programs for local students.

“We’re going to buy computers, create programming, create a whole entire system here and focus high schools within Inglewood like Inglewood High School,” Young said “We can focus on South LA schools as well, creating these programs within the school.”

Susan Groh of the NFL kicked off the community initiative leading up to the big game. The golden shovel was passed from last year’s host Tampa to the Los Angeles area.

It is the first of 12 events between now and next year in the league’s effort to support Southern California environmental causes.

“When we are finished with Super Bowl here, we want to be look back and see the positive impact that’s happened here,” said Groh. “I love that it happens around community greening projects like this. We come in, we plant trees, we build community gardens, we restore habitat. We do all these projects to leave things better than we found them.” 

Meanwhile, Young is happy to play just a small part in LA’s biggest sporting event in almost three decades.

"It’s a huge and the biggest event in the world," he said. "So the fact that we’re able to do community work, tie that into what Super Bowl has and what Super Bowl means, means a lot for the community and the people that we work with."

Years from now, after multiple champions have been crowned, Young's mark will still stand like a tree firmly planted.