Alston Park became a more welcoming place Saturday morning as dozens of shovel-wielding volunteers gathered to plant three dozen new trees and participate in the city of Napa’s 19th Annual Arbor Day event.

Each year on Arbor Day the city visits a local school or park to plant trees. On Saturday, 50 or more volunteers showed up to get their hands dirty and do some digging.

Justin-Siena High School student Alexis Gutierrez, 14, and her brother Josiah, 7, a student at St. John the Baptist Catholic School, planted three trees Saturday morning. “I helped mother Earth,” Gutierrez said.

Although Alexis was somewhat roped in to participating Saturday — her mother Gladis works in the city’s tree division — she said she genuinely enjoyed planting the trees and had a lot of fun.

Rob Hansen, the city’s Tree Division supervisor, was on hand to make sure the trees, most of which will shade the off-leash area used by many Napa dogs and their people, went to the right spots.

Ski Krupcznski, a water service worker for City of Napa, said, “Rob Hansen told me about it and I said ‘I want to plant a tree for my son.’”

As his wife Amberly held the couple’s 7-month-old son, Sebastian, Krupcznski dug into the soft earth and made a hole to plant a valley oak tree provided by city staff.

 Rob Hansen said during the week Tree Division employees dug irrigation lines and planted 65 trees at Alston Park. On Saturday volunteers planted 35 additional trees that are native to Napa, including valley oak, western redbud, blue oak, sycamore, chestnut and buckeyes.

Local nurseries donated $6,500 worth of trees, Hansen said. The city paid an additional $1,400 to host the event. Alston Park is considered a mixed-use park in which dog owners, horse riders, balloonists and hikers must share the space and get along, Hansen said.

“Balloons and dogs don’t get along,” Hansen said. “It’s a mixed-use park and that’s why events like this are good. Because it brings people together.”

Hansen said that the event was designed to get people to come to the park, promote a green Earth and fulfill the city’s commitment to being a tree city. Several dog owners walked their pooches at the park as volunteers planted.

“It’s so nice,” said Napa resident Dawn Johnson, as she walked her flat coat retriever, Ty. “It’s going to be great as (the trees) get bigger.”

Johnson said she’s been coming to Alston Park every morning for about a year to walk Ty. Napa resident Teresa Vandal said that once grown, the freshly planted trees will provide plenty of shade for her 9-year-old rottweiler, Kiesha.

“She’s very much in favor of the shade, being all black,” Vandal said about her dog.