Archive | Community & Environment RSS feed for this section

Jenny’s Garden a Hidden Treasure

28 Jun

Click formore pictures!

This past weekend I volunteered with New York Cares, Common Cents and others in Jenny’s Garden in West Harlem. The day was a celebration and kickoff of the National Conference on Volunteering and Service, which started today in NYC. With supplies generously donated by a corporate sponsor, we had enough mulch, top soil, hoes and rakes to keep us busy for hours. And busy we were…

The Riverside Valley Community Garden is on 138th and 12th Avenue inside of Riverside Park. It houses fresh vegetable and fruit plots that grow lettuce, potatoes, eggplant, peaches, plums, pears and cherries and more. This garden and many others within a 10 block radius, have been tended to by Jenny Benitez for the past 25 years. At 76, she has been volunteering her time every day to keep her neighborhood beautiful alongside other caring community members. Jenny was there on Saturday and the way she was pruning and digging and lifting and mulching, it seems clear that gardening is one great way to stay healthy and active! She is an amazing woman who, in the late eighties, saw a vacant lot filled with abandoned cars, drug addicts and garbage, and chose to do something about it. That lot is now a neighborhood gem and popular spot for groups of volunteers to get their hands dirty on summer weekends.

Arriving at 10am, our group of 25 volunteers received a brief tutorial on the tools we’d be using and where the gardens were located. They span about 20 blocks, sloping off of Riverside Drive and 12th Avenue, so it was good to have a sense of where we’d be for the day, if only to make sure we didn’t get lost from the pack. From the main Community Garden on 12th Avenue, we set out on Riverside Drive and spent the next three hours cleaning up a few large garden plots. We made a real difference that day, which is one of the best things about beautification projects: you can see results immediately, and that feels good.

 

Click for more pictures!

While I was on my hands and knees pulling weeds from the garden that ran along the street, I saw a pair of hands on the other side of the fence doing the same. I picked up my head to see an elderly gentleman holding car keys in one hand, and a mass of weeds in the other. I thanked him as he handed me his bounty to throw in our garbage bags, already full of pruned hedges and garbage, and with a nod of acknowledgment he went back to work on the weeds I couldn’t reach from inside the garden. It was touching to see someone stop what they’re doing and take a moment to help; he was seemingly a local, on his way to his car, and felt compelled to help, if only for 5 minutes. It made my day.

Click for more pictures!

We finished around 1pm, at which point we headed back to the Garden to eat pizza under the shade of grapes growing on a large trellis.  With the sun shining, surrounded by good people doing good things for an appreciative community, it was a truly great day.

You can help Jenny tend her gardens by volunteering solo or with a group. She’s a great woman who can teach you a thing or two about gardening, and she loves all volunteers that come to help. You can do so by visiting the Riverside Park Fund website and filling out the volunteer inquiry form, or sign up with New York Cares.

–

Thanks to the National Conference on Volunteering and Service for hosting the day and providing some sweet t-shirts for all the volunteers that came out to help Saturday. You can watch highlights of the conference and stay informed virtually by clicking here.

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Volunteer This Saturday at Jenny’s Garden!

23 Jun

This weekend, thousands of people dedicated to service will be converging on NYC for the National Conference on Volunteering and Service. Nationally convened by the Points of Light Institute, the Corporation for National and Community Service, and locally convened by NYC Service and New Yorkers Volunteer, the annual event provides attendees with an opportunity to learn, connect, and be inspired through a wide range of exciting and informative workshops, special events, service projects, exhibits, specialized corporate tracks and more. In anticipation and celebration of their arrival, a whole slew of service projects will be happening throughout New York so that attendees can serve our city, their host, during their stay and continue to proliferate the growing service movement in NYC.

One of the projects is happening at Jenny’s Garden in Harlem (138th Street and 12th Avenue). Common Cents, an educational, not-for-profit organization which specializes in creating and managing service-learning programs for young people, will be sending out volunteers and you can come join them (and me) this Saturday the 26th from 10am-2pm. We will be weeding, planting, pruning and raking leaves at Jenny’s Garden, a community garden in Riverside Park. So if you don’t have plans already for what is looking like a beautiful Saturday, come join us for a day in the park!

You can sign up for this project by going to http://www.volunteeringandservice.org/plan/service-projects.cfm , and clicking the sign up link next for Jenny’s Garden mid-way down the page.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Organizing at Materials for the Arts

5 Jun

What: Organizing supplies and general ‘housecleaning’

Where: Materials for the Arts, Long Island City

When: 6-8pm, 1st Wednesday of every month through  New York Cares


Inside of this very unassuming building lies the Materials for the Arts warehouse; a treasure trove of paints, office supplies, fabrics, paper, zippers, and more. For over 30 years this program -part of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and funded by DCLA, the DSNY (Dept of Sanitation and the DOE (Dept of Education)- has provided thousands of New York City’s arts and cultural organizations, public schools and community arts programs with the supplies they need to run and expand their programs. In doing this, they are also reducing waste by promoting the reuse of these materials, keeping these supplies out of landfills and putting them into hands that need them.

When I got off the subway in Long Island City, it took a second for me to figure out where I was and which direction to walk. And by ‘second’, I mean I was 15 minutes late due to my complete lack of directional sense. So when I finally arrived on the third floor, where MFTA is located, no one was there to great me except for a sign that read “New York Cares Volunteers—>”. I followed the sign around the corner, through a doorway or two, and found myself entering a very large space that felt like the back storage of a Target or other large superstore. Tall shelving units filled with bins of donations organized by category (Office Supplies, Crafts, etc.). I found my group by the Trim and Notion section, and was happy to know I wasn’t alone.

There was an assembly line of sorts happening, with 4 volunteers washing, rinsing and drying the yellow bins that store the various wares available. The warehouse gathers a LOT of dust and grime, so the bins could use a good cleaning, and that’s what we were there for. I started out drying bins, but then got moved to the ‘organization’ group. There was a row of bins that had not yet been completely sorted; it was also in the craft section, where things are hard to identify and probably get moved around a lot when people are picking through for what they want. I was told to pick a  bin and find a place for everything in it. Easier said than done, for me at least.

Word of advice: If you have any obsessive compulsive tendencies, you may want to avoid volunteering here, or bring a sleeping bag because you’ll be in for a long night. For artists and creative people who can see beauty and art in many things and find use for these items in future projects, this warehouse is a dream come true. A place to go for anything, even stuff you may not know you need or normally can’t afford, and that’s the whole point of this place. However, I found myself perpetually distracted by the disorganization I saw and had a hard time not being able to fix it. I would pick out a few buttons from my bin, and set out to the ‘Trim and Notion’ section to find their place. When I found a bin of miscellaneous buttons, I thought that it would be nice if all of THOSE buttons were organized by color. When I found some Christmas cards and went to put them in a ‘paper’ bin, I really wished I had time to empty the bin on the floor, and re-sort into ‘holiday and non-holiday’ paper. But alas, Rome wasn’t built in a day and I surely wasn’t going to reorganize an entire warehouse in two hours. After I got over that, things went much smoother; if I found a polaroid of a stuffed animal sitting with a plate of cookies (which I did), I found it a home. When I found a few model airplane kits for small children, I found a bin with similar items and tossed them in. By the end of the night, we had managed to put a dent in the bins, emptying out and condensing about 10-15 of them and reorganizing others. A few minutes before 8, we took the clean bins and swapped them with dirty ones, which will get washed next time the volunteers come to help.

For a creative mind, this is a goldmine of inspiration waiting to be picked apart and sifted for gems, which can be different for each person that walks in. I can imagine it being a great source of supplies for the teachers and organizations that take advantage of this service. It allows them to provide their clients, students, what have you, with more than they could have previously. Since a lot of the donations come from corporations or large organizations, it isnt uncommon to find a large amount of items lumped together, for example, there were two bins of burnt umber concentrated paint in the section I was working in. That could easily be used to complete a huge project or a lot of smaller projects. Basically, this place is awesome for people who can plan ahead and see a purpose for a variety of items.

If you can’t make it to the New York Cares volunteer project, don’t fret: you can volunteer directly with MFTA for a few hours based on your availability, helping to sort and fold fabric, label paint cans, straighten up framing supplies or make small repairs on furniture. Contact their volunteer coordinator at volunteer@mfta.nyc.gov for more information. Other things to know:

  • Projects vary, but expect to be bending over, picking things up or just moving things in general. Dress for this, and keep in mind that there are paints and dust and other things that may get on your clothes.
  • I wasn’t kidding about the OCD. If you’re the type of person that lines up soda cans in the fridge so the labels are all facing the same way, or you organize your book collection by color and size, this may not be the best place to volunteer. There won’t be enough time to organize everything, and it may frustrate you. OR, maybe you SHOULD volunteer here… I don’t know. I’m not a psychologist.
  • I found some great stuff that gave me a chuckle or made me wonder where it came from. For example, who got this Autobiography of Terry the dog from the Wizard of Oz, and why in the world did they give it away? I’ll never know. This intrigues me. There are a lot of intriguing things here and if you’re like me, you’ll enjoy finding these little treasures and imagining the person who owned it last (In this case, my vision was an old theater matron ala The Producers who drank martinis and wore lots of fur).

  • Do you qualify to shop here? Possibly, if you are a not-for-profit arts and cultural group; NYC Department of Education art teacher; Social service, health, and environmental organization with an ongoing art program; or government agency, you might. Click here to find out more about becoming a recipient.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Hands On New York Day

7 May

On April 24th, I participated in Hands On New York Day: a citywide volunteer event organized by New York Cares. Over the course of a few hours 5,000 volunteers weeded, planted, mulched, and painted their way through 69 public spaces, revitalizing New York after a long winter to get ready for spring.

This year my team was placed in Bowne Park, located in Flushing Queens and coincidentally, across the street from my Aunt and Uncle’s house. It’s a beautiful park that spans over 11 acres, where you can find a bocce court surrounded by benches filled with old-school players, a large playground, spray shower, and basketball courts, in addition to a huge pond. In all honestly, it’s a charming park that at a glance looked like it is was in great shape and didn’t need a slew of volunteers trampling the grounds. However, after a brief rundown of what was in store for the day, we learned that there’s always room for improvement.

Arriving at 9:30am, we waited for the New York Cares bus to arrive from the city, unloading about 50 volunteers onto the scene. On the agenda was putting down mulch, raking leaves, picking up litter, and painting benches. Team Give and Get -made up of my family and friends- was able to grab the much-coveted paintbrushes and related supplies, and set out to stake our claim on a set of benches. Armed with plastic tarps and a can of ‘Central Park Green’ paint (really, thats the name of the color), we were all business. Our designated scraper cleaned any rust or bird poop off while the rest of us taped the tarp down to avoid painting things that DIDN’T need a fresh coat..you know, like the sidewalk and grass. After we prepped the area, we went to town painting those benches like nobody’s business. Our team of 8 had no problem knocking out a few sets of benches, so we took an early lunch around 12 to take a break from the sun.

After lunch we decided to try our hands at raking. Much of the easy stuff was already raked into neat piles around the park, to be picked up by the leaf vacuum later in the day, so we turned our attention to a large mass of leaves that no one had touched all morning. Soon after we started, we realized why it went untouched; this pile was about one foot deep and consisted of heavy wet leaves that quite possibly fell to the ground before I was even born. We did our best but even with shovels, it was hard to make a dent. Our efforts were further thwarted when the park site manager came over to let us know that the wet mass we were digging up would clog the vacuum and therefore needed to be bagged up by hand. By the end of the afternoon, blistered and sore, our team had done all we could and had to throw in the shovels and call it a day. You win this time, leaves…

All in all, the day was a success. The grass was cleared of debris and leaves, the benches looked shiny and new, and the smell of fresh mulch permeated the air. It truly was a great start to spring, and I’m sure that the local residents who frequent the park will appreciate the fruits of our labor.

After our day of volunteering, we took a stroll to Northern Boulevard for some Korean BBQ at one of my favorite places: KumGangSang. Along the way we marveled over beautiful gardens in the yards of almost every home we passed and ogled some enormously ornate houses. As we walked down 32nd Avenue, emerging through the trees we caught a glimpse of what looked like a  pagoda-style temple one block over. Upon further investigation, both by peering through the construction gates and online, it turns out that it is in fact a Buddhist temple being built by Korean organization Hanmaum Seon Won.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but one of my favorite things about volunteering in NYC is that it takes me new and interesting places that I probably wouldn’t wander through otherwise. I mean, we found a guy on Main Street manning an automatic cream puff maker! Hundreds of cream puffs in minutes! Who knew?

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

A special thanks to those who came out that day for Team Give and Get NYC: Amy Bogin, Dan Sussman, Ronnie Sussman, Meg Dockery, Paul Costa, Sarah Bowlin, and Zoe Schweitzer. Even though I think we’re awesome, there were about 4,992 other people volunteering that day, most of them in other parks and community spaces throughout the boroughs; to see what they were up to all day you can check out New York Cares’ blog for pictures and stories from the field.

—

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Volunteerism in Full Bloom

22 Apr

The sun is shining more and more each day, which means spring is here and summer is on its way! For those of you looking for volunteer opportunities that let you take advantage of the nice weather, look no further. Below is a list of places to go volunteer your time for good while catching some sun and fresh air.

Partnership for Parks: If you’re looking to volunteer in a park, this is a good place to start. For all intents and purposes, it’s the City of New York’s volunteer arm of the Park and Rec. Department; their mission is to help NYC parks thrive by strengthening a diverse, growing network of dedicated park volunteers and groups by creating opportunities to get more involved in all things Park. You can use this as a starting point to search for organizations near you (click here) that are beautifying parks right where you live! If you don’t want to go it alone, the Partnership is also able to organize group volunteer outings for corporate groups- click here for details.

It’s My Park Day: Don’t feel like sorting through the options? Then participate in the city’s annual ‘It’s My Park Day’ on May 15th. You don’t even have to register: just find a participating park and GO. Volunteer activities range from horticulture to painting projects, along with a variety of free events, including kayaking, dance performances, and more. There will be over 150 community organizations and parks participating, so chances are you won’t have to travel far if you live in one of the five boroughs (even you, Staten Islanders!). All of the locations aren’t listed yet, so check the website closer to the date for more details.

IOBY (In Our Backyards): IOBY is a great organization that connects donors and volunteers to projects that are going on right in their backyards (hence the name IOBY). Local groups post projects they are trying to complete in their community, and you can offer to help by volunteering your time or money towards their cause. Most of them are small-scale projects that you can help complete in a day, like putting up a fence or planting seeds in a garden. It’s an organization I can really get behind, because their niche is focused enough that everything posted is completely reasonable and feasible, affording opportunities to a lot of people who just need a little extra push to accomplish their goal.

Parks and Recreation Events Calendar: There are a ridiculous number of events going on in New York’s parks that you don’t know even know about. Or maybe you do, but don’t be such a narcissist, I wasn’t just talking to YOU. Anyway, on any given day this calendar will show you at least 4 or 5 opportunities you can get on board with. For example, every Tuesday at 7am you can head to Cobble Hill Park in Brooklyn to help maintain and beautify. A lot of the events are more about enjoying the parks and less about volunteering in them, but all of the places listed are typically open to accepting volunteers so it’s still a good Spring resource.

Shape Up New York: Do you have experience as a fitness instructor and want to use your powers for good? If so, you may be interested in Shape Up New York, where you can volunteer to teach a variety of classes and activities, including aerobics, yoga and pilates. They’re currently looking for instructors in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, and the committment is a 6 or 8 week course, once a week.

The Gowanus Dredgers: This organization is dedicated to providing waterfront access and education to the public, running programs on the shorelines of Gowanus, Red Hook, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Staten Island and Long Island City, run by volunteers. You can take a self-guided tour of the canal using the Dredgers stash of canoes, and then get your hands dirty helping them clean up trash, restore the natural habitats along the canal, or participate in one of the other many programs they offer. To stay informed of volunteer opportunities, send them an email at dredgers@excite.com and ask to be put on their volunteer email list. If you happen to have a paddle, life jacket, or other equipment the Dregders may find useful, they take donations. Though I’d be interested to know why any New Yorker has extra paddles lying around, and where you store them…

Bronx River Alliance:They offer a variety of programs here that you can get involved in, including recreation, education, outreach, and of course, restoring and maintaining the river. You can help in any of these areas, and it will allow you to volunteer while enjoying the weather, and probably discovering a new part of New York you’ve never explored. If you would like to learn more about available opportunities, call or e-mail Michelle Williams at 718.430.4636 or michelle.williams@parks.nyc.gov.

Garden at Brooklyn Bridge Park: Head out to the Park on April 27th and join OneBrick in cleaning up this oft-forgotten park by the Brooklyn Bridge. The city-run side of BBP has little funding and requires a lot of volunteer hours to maintain it’s condition, so enjoy the view while you mulch, weed, plant and generally spruce up the area, knowing that you’re doing work that would have otherwise gone undone (RSVP with OneBrick here) Can’t make it on Tuesday? You can volunteer with the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy all season long; for more info, click here.

Hudson River Park: Further uptown on the west side lies the Hudson River Park, where you can volunteer every other Sunday in the South Promenade perennial beds while learning hands-on learn horticulture skills, such as weeding, thinning and pruning. New York Cares and Street Project run projects here on the other Sundays, so you’ve got options all month long. If you’re looking for a committment, you can volunteer at the Pier 66 Natural Habitat twice a month. This garden is not open to the public, so you’ll have a private place to call your own while you weed, prune, and transplant your heart out. For this, healthy, strong and hard working individuals are required, and some gardening experience preferred.

Million Trees NYC: They have one goal: plant 1 million trees over the next ten years in NYC. Want to help? There’s plenty of trees to go around. Click here to learn more about how to get your hands dirty. 325,275 trees and growing…LITERALLY!

Street Project and Urban Adventures: Once a month, you can sign up to volunteer with Street Project and go on an Urban Adventure! According to the website, “Urban Adventures was developed in conjunction with Mott Hall Middle School to provide an educational and recreational outlet to seventh graders. The 10 to 15 Mott Hall students who participate look to the program as an opportunity to explore the city”. The next event is a scavenger hunt in Central Park on June 12th (click here for info); previous adventures have included trips to museums, parks, exhibits, and zoos.

This is definitely not an exhaustive list… Have suggestions? Post them below in the comments section or email me at info@giveandgetnyc.com and I’ll add them to the list! Spring has Sprung! Get out there and volunteer!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →