Central Park

The Daily Plant : Tuesday, April 24, 2001

IT’S MY EARTH DAY TOO! PARKS CELEBRATES EARTH DAY IN MULTIPLE LOCATIONS

If initially it seemed odd to kids at the Belvedere Castle to celebrate the earth with trash, it didn't by the time they left Central Park's Earth Day festivities. At the Earth Day party, those who didn't already know learned that our garbage is a resource to be re-cycled and re-used. Over the course of the day, newspapers were reborn as pencil holders, and milk cartons reincarnated as musical instruments. The arts and crafts activities offered were a crash course in the nine lives of a bag of trash. Kids made birdfeeders and planters, and learned how to recycle their own paper.

Parkies and volunteers and staff with the Central Park Conservancy were joined by representatives from the Department of Sanitation who spoke about New York City's recycling program. The Brooklyn Botanic Gardens taught kids how to compost their trash. Swooping in to celebrate mother earth were a few spectacular birds of prey from the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary. Urban Park Rangers and volunteers from the Central Park Conservancy helped kids make "Please Recycle" and "Do Not Litter" signs out of recycled posters. For anyone who wanted to put a little nature in the earth, seeds were available for planting. The crowd celebrated their accomplishments to the enviro-grooves of Nature Moves, who invited kids to join in the noise making with their homemade instruments.

Further uptown, the planting of 65,000 plants on Sunday, April 22, will create a healthy green groundcover in Morningside Park, one of Harlem's historic inheritances. The Earth Day celebration held there was the result of a collaboration between Starbucks, Columbia University's Earth Coalition, Parks, and the Friends of Morningside Park, four groups who represent a cross section of park users from students to neighborhood residents, to well-caffeinated New Yorkers. Each made unique contributions to the event.

500 people registered at a sign-in table, and many decided to work with Friends of Morningside Park, a community resource they had not known existed. Some had noticed changes in the park, but hadn't known who credit with the transformation. It was a day of validation for all who work in Morningside Park.

Children kept themselves entertained at work on a giant purple mural. 100 small hands participated in the creation of it. Starbucks and Odwala provided food and drinks to refresh the crowd on this warm day.

Mother Earth did not disappoint her supporters this year. Sunday, April 22, 2001, was the warmest day of the year so far and in the Bronx, hundreds of park visitors took advantage of the great weather to visit the Annual Eco/ Earth Day Celebration in Pelham Bay Park.

Environmental organizations from around the city joined together to teach people about the importance of protecting our natural resources. Many of the exhibits and demonstrations were geared to reach children. A performance by the 'Earthling' and 'Dr. Don't Litter' taught the children in the audience the four 'R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Restore, the theme of the day's activities.

The Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and the Reptile Museum gave people an opportunity to see Red-tailed hawks and Iguanas up close. Other organizations participating in the event included the Department of Sanitation, Bronx Green-Up, the Sierra Club, Appalachian Mountain Club, B.C.E.Q. (Bronx Council on Environmental Quality), the boy scouts and U.S. Coast Guard. Bronx recreation staff entertained children with craft making and face painting while the mounted PEP unit showed off their Clydesdales in the 'Horse of Course' program. The Latin Jazz Alliance provided the musical entertainment of the afternoon.

Bronx Earth Day is a cooperative effort between Van Cortlandt/ Pelham Bay parks; Urban Park Rangers; Bronx recreation and the Friends of Pelham Bay Park. Special thanks to our sponsors Con Edison and Bronx Council on the Arts for their support.

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO IN THE PLANT
(Tuesday, April 26, 1988)

"NEW YORKERS IN NATURE" TO BE BROADCAST ON WBAI-FM (99.5) IN PRIL, MAY, & JUNE

The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is presenting a series of radio pgorams designed to educate New Yorkers about the city's natural envinrment and engage them in i9ts defense and restoration. The programs, broadcast over WBAI-FM (99.5) are bringing together prominent naturalists, environmental activists, educators, government officials and the general public to protect the parks, waters, trees and wildlife of the city.

The first program, broadcast last Saturday, featured Marc Matsil, Director of Parks' Natural Resources Group. The series will continue on consecutive Saturdays until June 4. The concluding program will be a seven-hour marathon, culminating in an "all species" parade, picnic and evening concert at the Cathedral, located at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street in Manhattan.

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"This plant would like to grow
And yet be embryo."

Richard Purdy Wilbur (b. 1921)

Know Before You Go

Harlem Meer Center (formerly Lasker Rink)

Harlem Meer Center