Friends of the Public Garden honored its 50th anniversary in a virtual celebration last Friday.

While Friends couldn’t gather at their traditional Green and White Ball, the virtual event was an opportunity to see footage of Boston’s parks over decades and seasons. Clips showed families and children enjoying the city’s greenspace in both pandemic and pre-pandemic times.

Secretary of Labor Martin Walsh, Friends’ President Elizabeth Vizza, Board Chair Leslie Adam, and President Emeritus Henry Lee were all featured in a pre-filmed video.

Walsh congratulated the Friends on 50 years of partnership with the city. “The Friends of the Public Garden puts their heads and hearts and souls into making our beloved parks the best they can be,” he said.

WCVB’s Rhondella Richardson was host for the evening and led the audience in a virtual visit down memory lane, through the park’s history and milestones.

Friends was founded in 1970 when a group of neighbors came together out of concern for the state of the Public Garden.

“In the late 60’s, it was a low point for parks nationwide and our parks were no exception. It’s hard to imagine that today, but this Garden was almost beyond saving,” Vizza said.

The group became the first parks advocacy organization in the region and one of the first in the country.

Today, Friends is made up of 3,000 members from 142 communities in Massachusetts, 32 states and the District of Columbia.

In 1981, Friends launched their first fundraising effort. Their cause was the Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial. Friends raised $200,000 to restore the bronze relief and create an endowment for its upkeep. The memorial recently underwent a $3 million restoration and will be returned to Boston Common over Memorial Day weekend.

“Friends spends over $2 million a year in the three parks and people don’t really know that because they see the results, but they don’t see what goes into getting those results,” Vizza said.

Both staff and volunteers tend to over 40 public art pieces, 1,700 trees, along with fountains and grounds across Boston Common, the Public Garden and Commonwealth Avenue Mall.

In addition to reflecting on the work Friends have done this year, the night of celebration highlighted personal stories from community members. For some, Boston’s parks are where their children took their first steps. Others have gotten married under the parks’ trees and witnessed proposals.

Community members reflected on the history of protest and civic life in the parks, where figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King, and Pope John Paul II have spoken. The Common has seen hundreds of gatherings, from antiwar protests in the late 1960’s, to protests in recent months honoring victims of police shootings.

“Any way you look at it, these parks hold a special place in our hearts, on both ordinary and extraordinary days,” Richardson said. To ensure the parks remain an asset for future generations, “We need to continue to envision these critical enhancements and to advocate, care and renew these parks,” Leslie Adam said.