It's My Park! Day Celebrated Throughout Queens

Photo Malcolm Pinckney/NYC Parks & Recreation More than 350 volunteers planted 3,000 trees at Kissena Corridor Park for It's My Park! Day October 20.

KISSENA PARK: City Department of Parks & Recreation (DPR) Commissioner Adrian Benepe, City Parks Foundation (CPF) Executive Director David Rivel, Partnerships for Parks Director Jason Schwartz, New York Restoration Project Executive Director Drew Becher, Assembly Member Ellen Young andCity Councilmember John Liu joined more than 350 volunteers at Kissena Corridor Park in Flushing on Saturday, October 20 to help plant 3,000 trees for It's My Park! Day. The semi-annual event brought more than 6,000 volunteers to care for and celebrate parks throughout the city and to plant 10,000 trees across the five boroughs- the most ever planted in parks in a single day- to support Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Million Trees NYC initiative. In addition to the primary reforestation site in each borough, volunteers planted additional trees, performed tree maintenance, cleaned, raked, mulched, painted and planted bulbs at nearly 200 parks citywide.

(L. to r.): Volunteers from Long Island City H.S., David Rivel, executive director, City Parks Foundation; Elizabeth McQueen, president, Friends of Queensbridge Park; Katie Ellman, president, Green Shores NYC; Claire Doyle, president of ARROW (Astoria Residents Reclaiming Our World) celebrated It's My Park! Day in Queensbridge Park on Saturday, October 20. More than 6,000 volunteers joined in supporting parks citywide. The twice-annual event is produced by City Parks Foundation and the city Department of Parks & Recreation.

DPR Natural Resources Group, DPR gardeners and the Urban Park Rangers guided more than 350 volunteers from Holly Civic Association, Queensborough Hill Civic Association, New York Restoration Project, Liu's Youth Action Committee, Kissena Corridor West Conservancy, Wild Metro, John Bowne H.S., I.S. 237, East West School of International Studies, Wally Realty, Boy Scouts of America, Kissena Park Civic Association, Holy Family Confirmation, Girl Scouts Council of New York/Future of Life- who donated 50 green ash trees, West Flushing Civic Association, Waldheim Civic Association, Cornell University 4H Team Leadership Program, American Chinese Women's Association, President of Flushing Development Center, Flushing Chinese Business Association and Chinese Christian Herald Crusades to properly plant 3,000 two-foot red and white oak, sassafras and tulip poplar trees in an effort to expand the forest of Kissena Corridor Park. At the end of the day, they formed a bucket brigade to water the newly planted trees and the Natural Resources Group spread an "oat mix" containing wild flower seeds for ground cover.

Elizabeth McQueen, president, Friends Queensbridge Park.

Kissena Corridor Park, a vision of Robert Moses, consists of three separate corridors that link together much of the parkland in Eastern Queens, forming a 4.5-mile "emerald necklace" from Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in the west to Cunningham Park in the east. Today, portions of Kissena Corridor Park are left as natural areas while others have been developed as ballfields or playgrounds. Historically the planting site was used as a dumping ground for construction rubble, but the new soil is full of rock, sand, silt and cobble and has low fertility, which native plants thrive in. Thanks to a longstanding relationship between the DPR and the nearby New York Hospital Queens, approximately 10,500 cubic yards of glacial till discovered during the construction of the hospital's new parking garage was moved to Kissena Corridor Park, where it provides perfect conditions for native plants and trees. The hospital also donated supplies to It's My Park! Day.

Vince Tabone, (c.), general counsel, and Daniel Egers, Friends of Oakland Lake and Ravine, Inc., president, joined with leaders and Auburndale Cub Scout Pack 75, high school students from the Queensborough Community College Liberty Partnerships Program and neighborhood volunteers at It's My Park! Day October 20 at Oakland Lake.

QUEENSBRIDGE: Some 20 players and parents of the Gioia-YMCA Youth Baseball League joined almost 80 volunteers, including volunteers from Friends of Queensbridge Park, the East River Development Alliance (ERDA), Long Island City H.S. and Friends of Gantry Park at Queensbridge Park, 41st Avenue and Vernon Boulevard, for "It's My Park! Day" on Saturday, October 20. The volunteers raked leaves for recycling, cleaned up refuse left in the park and planted almost 700 bulbs that will bloom next spring.

At an awards ceremony hosted by Elizabeth McQueen, president of Friends of Queensbridge Park, members of the community and the Parks Department Staff that have given so much to keep Queensbridge Park looking good were honored. All the volunteers were treated to a cookout and puppeteers from City Parks Foundation's Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater performed "Cinderella Samba".

The volunteers joined thousands of other New Yorkers in caring for and celebrating the New York City Parks. Other volunteers participated in clean up and planting projects, enjoying free events or just getting outside to enjoy the city parks. There was a special emphasis on trees, with large-scale tree plantings and tree related activities in all five boroughs.

It's My Park! Day is a volunteer initiative of Partnerships for Parks, a joint program of the Department of Parks and Recreation and the City Parks Foundation.

OAKLAND LAKE: Vince Tabone, general counsel of Friends of Oakland Lake and Ravine, Inc., and Daniel Egers, Friends of Oakland Lake and Ravine, Inc. president, joined leaders of Auburndale Cub Scout Pack 75, high school students from the Queensborough Community College Liberty Partnerships Program and neighborhood volunteers at It's My Park! Day October 20 at Oakland Lake. The volunteers planted more than 400 tulip bulbs along the 46th Avenue entrance to the park and shrubs donated by Garden World to "Fishing Buddies, Inc." throughout the park. They also collected litter throughout the lake area.

It's My Park! Day was the second event in Friends of Oakland Lake's Youth Stewardship Program, designed to educate young people about the importance of environmental responsibility while actively participating in park maintenance and beautification. Participants received "The History and Ecology of Little Neck Bay" by Dr. Aline Euler of the Alley Pond Environmental Center, an educational primer on past and ongoing efforts to protect Little Neck Bay and the surrounding watershed, including Oakland Lake.

More than 6,000 volunteers citywide were scheduled to participate in It's My Park! Day, a biannual citywide event sponsored by the city Department of Parks Recreation, the City Parks Foundation and Partnerships for Parks to care for and celebrate New York City parks. At one reforestation site in each borough volunteers planted a total of 10,000 trees in support of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Million Trees NYC initiative to plant and care for one million trees throughout the five boroughs in the next decade. In addition to the five primary reforestation sites, volunteers planted additional trees, performed tree maintenance, cleaned, raked, mulched, painted and planted bulbs at more than 170 parks citywide.