It all began with a kindergarten field trip and a tiny tree.
Twenty-eight years ago, Kimber came home from a class visit to a nursery in Santa Paula carrying a seedling in a small white cone, no bigger than her finger. Her mother, Sarah, planted it in an old coffee pot, and together they began to care for it. From the start, Kimber took responsibility for the little tree, making sure it had sunlight, water, and plenty of attention.
As both Kimber and the tree grew, the family repotted it again and again. When they finally ran out of pots large enough, Sarah asked her husband, Bruce, to build a wooden planter box. That box has been the tree’s home ever since, sitting in the side yard, where it grew tall and spindly among a cluster of palm trees.
Now, nearly three decades later, the tree stands over 20 feet tall. The Glenns had long hoped that Kimber would one day plant it at her first home, but space was running out and that milestone hadn’t arrived yet. It was time to find the tree a permanent home where it could continue to thrive.
The family began searching for a new location—somewhere the tree would be cared for and appreciated. After a number of unsuccessful attempts, Bruce reached out to the County of Ventura. As it happened, the County’s Sustainability Division and General Services Agency had recently identified a few declining pine trees that needed to be removed from county grounds. The Glenns’ healthy, well-adapted pine, already in a planter box and thriving in the local climate, was a perfect match.
It was a rare and fortunate alignment of needs and timing. The County does not typically accept tree donations from residents, but this one-time situation made it possible.
The Glenn family, whose roots in Ventura County go back generations, was proud to see the tree find a new home in the community they love. It has now been planted at the County Government Center, near the Hill Road entrance, where it will continue to grow for years to come.
Kimber hopes to bring her own children there someday to visit the pine she helped raise—a living symbol of care, commitment, and the joy of watching something grow.
