Cobble Hill Park

The Daily Plant : Wednesday, April 3, 2002

SPRINGTIME FUN FOR EVERYBUNNY

Central Park was filled with over 50,000 people on Saturday for the 56^th Annual Easter Eggstravaganza, sponsored by Pathmark and M&M’s. Overnight Bethesda Fountain was transformed into a splendid springtime scene filled with oversized flowers and carrots and sprinkled with 35,000 colorful plastic eggs with yummy candies inside. A 9-foot tall top hat and Easter egg and giant beehives suspended in the air created a colorful dreamscape that Parks magician created.

Beginning as early as 8:30 a.m., eager and excited children (and their parents) were lined up to be the first to enter the country’s largest Easter egg hunt. Another popular activity was the Jelly Belly Build-your-own-Basket venue. At 11:00 a.m., the "doors" opened and the springtime fun began. Spread out over the lower forty acres of Central Park, thousands of New York children dyed eggs, made tissue paper flowers, hunted for Easter eggs, had their faces painted, participated in Egg-in-Spoon races, visited a petting zoo, and were entertained by a cappella groups, puppet shows, and other live performance groups. For the first time, Urban Park Rangers offered tours entitles "Orienteering," "Birding," and "Signs of Spring," as well as seed planting for children. Miffy the Bunny, Stuart Little, Arthur the Aardvark, and other walk-about characters entertained everybunny.

Commissioner Adrian Benepe welcomed attendees to the event and hoped that the event "helped launch everyone into a great spring." Easter Eggstravaganza, the largest Parks event of the year, was made possible by 270 volunteers on Saturday, as well as Central Park Conservancy, Marketing, Recreation, and Citywide Special Events. Spring indeed had begun come Saturday’s free festival in Central Park, as temperatures reached the 70’s and New Yorkers gathered together in the sunshine.

The Daily Plant extends its condolences to 5Boro PAA Cathy DiGrazia and Queens SPMO John Fitzgerald whose mother, Alice Fitzgerald, died on Saturday March 30. A memorial service will be held on Thursday April 4, 2002.

The Daily Plant extends its condolences to 5Boro SOM (ME) Carl Lamorgese whose father, Rocco Lamorgese, died on Sunday March 24. A memorial service was held on Wednesday March 27, 2002.

The Daily Plant extends its condolences to 5Boro Clerical Associate Isabel Walker whose husband, Clarence Walker, died on Monday March 25. A memorial service was held on Monday, April 1, 2002.

The Daily Plant extends its condolences to PRM Jon Mazza, whose mother, W. Carmen Mazza, died last week. A funeral service was held on Tuesday, April 2, 2002.

(Wednesday, April 12, 1989)

For the fourth time in five years an in-house design of the Capital Projects staff has won the 1988 Annual Award for Excellence in Design, a prestigious Art Commission award. Queens Supervisor of Landscape Architecture Ralph Borkowski’s plan for the reconstruction of Cobble Hill Park in Brooklyn was selected from over 800 designs reviewed by the Art Commission.

Borkowski’s design maintains the use of the park as a center for passive recreation, and strives for harmony with the 19^th-century architecture of the surrounding neighborhood. Brick, bluestone and wrought iron are found throughout the Cobble Hill area.

"An inexhaustible good nature is one of the most precious gifts of heaven, spreading itself like oil over the troubled sea of thought, and keeping the mind smooth and equable in the roughest weather."

(April 3, 1783-1859)