Give & Get Open Forum

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?

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.

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On April 24th, New York Cares will host it’s annual Hands On New York Day. On this day dedicated to beautifying our city’s parks, community centers and gardens, you can join 5,000+ volunteers as we make these spaces cleaner, greener, and ready for summer. From 9:30 to 3pm you’ll be weeding, planting, painting, or otherwise participating in a great day of service for the city; so roll up your sleeves and enjoy a nice spring day in the park.

For more information about Hands On New York Day, visit the event home page here. You can sign up as an individual, or create your own team of volunteers. The $20 registration fee goes towards defraying the costs associated with the day; someone had to pay for all those shovels and garbage bags you’re using. This is also one of the largest fundraising days for New York Cares, which relies on money like this to maintain and run over 11,000 volunteer projects year-round; so don’t be afraid to ask your friends and family to ante up and donate.

If you’re interested in joining the Give and Get NYC team, email me at info@giveandgetnyc.com

After a few weeks vacation, I’m back in New York. I missed the September 20th volunteer project sign-up on New York Cares website, so I’m running low on ideas this week for volunteer opportunities; if there’s someplace you’d like to see me volunteer and write about, please comment below with your suggestions!

Meanwhile, I’m getting ready for New York Cares Day on October 17th. New York Cares will mobilize 8,000 volunteers and dispatch them throughout the 5 boroughs. According to their website, “The Department of Education lost $180 million from its budget last year, forcing schools to cut or postpone revitalization and upkeep projects.^1”

This day of service will help to make up for lost funding by enlisting the citizens of New York to paint, plant, and organize public schools across the city. In addition, this is a huge fundraising push for New York Cares; money raised will go towards supporting their year-round projects, many of which address the needs of public schools and their students. I’ve created a team for the day, Give and Get NYC, made up of friends and coworkers. We’ll be at an elementary school in Brooklyn from 9:30am – 3:30pm, helping to create a brighter and safer learning enviornment by doing a number of projects ranging from painting bookcases to planting bulbs in the school’s garden. I’m really looking forward to getting my hands dirty for the day and transforming the school for these kids. Fingers crossed for awesome weather and sun!

If you’d like to join me and my team on New York Cares Day, or sign up as an individual, there are still 8 days left before registration ends on the 9th. You can go to the New York Cares Day website and click ‘Join a Team’ on the left, and find Give and Get NYC in the list. Alternatively, you can sign up as an individual and be placed in an area that is in need of more volunteers; they are still 1,000 volunteers short of their 8,000 goal.  You will need to pay a $20 registration fee, which is used to offset the cost of supplies and materials for the day (i.e. paint, rollers, flowers, etc). If you’re unable to help out but still want to make a contribution, you can visit my team’s homepage and make a donation by clicking here.

If you have questions or comments, please leave them here or email me: info@giveandgetnyc.com

What: Revitalize parks, gardens, playgrounds, community centers, and schools

Where: Bronx River Park, through New York Cares

When: Saturday, 830am-2pm

Hands On New York Day is one of New York Cares biggest days of the year. They mobilized about 5,000 volunteers, in partnership with the MillionTrees initiative, and sent them out to about 75 parks and gardens throughout the 5 boroughs. Some people planted trees, others re-painted fences or picked up trash; volunteers were doing whatever was necessary to fit the needs of the park/garden/school to revitalize and beautify the site.

I volunteered to be a registration leader and ambassador; the first job required that I register volunteers as they arrived at the site, give them a t-shirt, collect a registration fee if necessary, and have them sign a waiver. The ambassador’s (also me), were then supposed to collect all of the registration materials, money and any extra t-shirts, and bring them back to the New York Cares office on W. 29th Street. Though I’m sure that  it wasn’t the case at most of the sites, ours had some major issues that caused a late start. The directions that were sent out to most of the volunteers (including me, who was supposed to be at the site early) were wrong, so people had to get back on the subway and go two more stops to the correct meeting spot. It was really confusing; to add to this, I took the wrong train to begin with, so I was already running late. But that’s my own fault for being directionally challenged.

All of that aside, the Bronx River Alliance did a great job getting people registered and into t-shirts before we got there, and throughout the day were extremely helpful and knowledgeable about their park. It was a great day to  be outside and planting trees. This is an annual event, so you’ll have to wait until next year to try this activity out, but there are tons of opportunities during the warmer months to get outside and volunteer. Check out the organizations on my resource page to find something for you; these type of events/activities are great for groups, as you can all work together digging and planting and just having a good time.

Volunteers are needed to help with planting, weeding & mulching in the Butterfly Garden.  Be part of the transformation of this corner of Carroll Park in Brooklyn!  No experience is necessary, tools will be provided, and best of all, kids are welcome.  This takes place on the same day as ‘It’s My Park Day’; if you volunteer in the morning as part of this special event, Abilene on Court Street will give you one free drink for volunteering at least two hours of your time!  You can read more about ‘Its My Park Day’ here or here.

Carroll Park is located at President Street and Smith Street in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. Take the F train to the Carroll Street Station, exit at President Street and look for the welcoming park right in front of you. By bus, the B71 and B75 will drop you right there.