Volume 20, No. 3
July 2010

by Heather Marcellis

Heather has been president of the club, vice president, social chair, and long time liaison to the Central Park Conservancy for the regular Flyers volunteer day


Heather has been president of the club, vice president, social chair, and long time liaison to the Central Park Conservancy for the regular Flyers volunteer day

Giving Back to Central Park

Getting Back to Nature

L

 iving in a concrete jungle does not afford many opportunities to get back to nature very often. Oftentimes, city dwellers must travel outside the city for the pleasures of gardening, pruning, raking or mulching. I don’t use “pleasures” here facetiously. If you’ve ever worked in a garden, you know the great satisfaction that can come from growing plants and working outside. There is merit to a few hours work in the fresh air and one in which you can instantly see the fruits of your labors. It clears your head, relaxes your muscles, and puts you in the moment with nature. I think of it as a kind of yoga with a trowel!

Central Park is Beautiful
There is such an opportunity to do this meditative “yoga” with nature and it comes about four times a year with the Flyers/Central Park Conservancy Volunteer program. We’re on what’s known as the Conservancy’s “Green Team,” a group of volunteers that meet quarterly to complete large-scale horticultural and maintenance projects throughout Central Park. The commitment is only 12 hours per year! We meet on Saturdays with another team of veteran volunteers and work at different sites in the park from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, rain or shine.

The Flyers began their association with the Central Park Conservancy in earnest in 2004. The idea had been kicked around the year prior when Amy Mills was president, but it was actually difficult to get “in” originally. A few of us (John Ward and myself) tried to make contact about how to get involved, but it took our friends at the NYRR to help put us in touch with the right people. Who would have thought that it would be so hard to volunteer your time?! Finally, we made contact and established our desire to work in the park alongside the Conservancy’s plethora of loyal volunteers.

But sometimes it needs a little help
I work closely with the Conservancy’s Director of Volunteers to schedule and instruct our Flyer outings. Over the past six years, we’ve worked with three different directors - Keiron Linday, Daniel Ransom, and currently, Neddie Hernandez at CPC. Each with a different personality, but all of who have been very patient, informative and instructive with our group.

There have also been many people involved with this program on the Flyers’ side. John Ward, who was the Flyers’ Community Service Director at the time, was very instrumental in helping me establish our initial contact with CPC and attended nearly every volunteer outing those first few years. Jodie Rosenberg very effectively led the charge in 2005 and gratefully, still comes out to volunteer to this day! This volunteering means so much to me that I had to selfishly wrest the reins back again in 2006! Luckily (and unselfishly), Jody allowed me to! This year, we added a co-chair in the name of the very capable and enthusiastic Dave Kleckner, who has proven to be top-notch! No surprise, Dave is as quick a get-things-done man as he is a speedy runner! He’s also developed a great relationship with Neddie, the CPC Volunteer Director.

The Flyers at Play
So many other Flyers have helped tremendously along the way. Thanks to past presidents Amy Mills and Gabi DiBlasi for their desire to launch and support this program. Special appreciation goes to Andreas Stresemann and Richard Brounstein, both long time CPC volunteers, who aid in both posting the website volunteer sign-up pages online and capturing our working moments on film (in addition to their actual event participation)! Master PR woman, Dana McLaren, has steadfastly posted the names of all the volunteers in her witty website write-ups over the years. This is important, because the volunteers deserve to be recognized!

Lastly, to all the Flyer volunteers over the years, who’ve taken time out of their busy lives to work in the park on a weekend for a few hours, a great big “thank you” goes to you! Without your involvement, there would not even be a volunteer program! I can’t thank you enough for logging the time - getting your hands (and possibly clothing) dirty, getting wet in the rain, getting paint on your skin (sorry, Eric Stadnyck), getting thrown in a leaf pile (Lucky Lara Kail), getting tired swinging a pick axe (Peter Burger and Jim Nicholas) carting a wheel barrow (John Ward, Ed Altman), corralling your family members to help (Heidi Chadwick), and so many others for your help mulching, weeding and raking!! Your hard work is evident throughout the park we all love so much.

As we all know, it isn’t just about lacing up your sneakers for a run in that great, large green space, but it is also about giving back and helping to maintain the beauty that was Olmstead and Vaux’s dream.

So that’s the history of our six-year long involvement with the Central Park Conservancy. Once you’re out there working in the dirt, you’ll understand just how much fun it can really be! Every child likes to get his hands dirty digging in the earth, and really, what adult does not? (Well, maybe now with gardening gloves)… Guess what? The Central Park Conservancy supplies gardening gloves to all volunteers, so now there is no excuse not to show up! So when you’re scheduling your busy weekend plans next, take time to channel your inner child. It really is fun!!

Please come join us next in the fall. Rumor has it we’ll be raking leaves (with gloves)!

 

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