MAY 8
C RY D E R
P O I N T
Earth Day 2018
It certainly felt chillier than 48 degrees on Saturday,
April 21, when members of the Cryder Point community
got together to celebrate Earth Day (and do
a little work while they were at it).
This was a multi-faceted celebration, which began the
week before with a call for residents to craft original art
to commemorate the day. Kids of all ages met in the 21
Community Room on April 14 to get creative, and their
colorful posters were displayed along the promenade on
the 21st for all to enjoy. It was the perfect site, right in
between the two main areas of activity.
Over on the west end of the property, kids convened at
11:00 in the grassy area behind the playground and got
their hands dirty planting marigolds.
There was a little bit of a delay in getting started as they
waited for supplies to be delivered, but once all of the
necessary containers, dirt, and other materials arrived,
the children really got into it. The flowers were planted in
biodegradable (yes!) toilet paper rolls and placed inside
two large containers. Within an hour, all of the marigolds
that had been patiently waiting in flats had been carefully
transplanted to their new home.
Concurrently, over on the east side, folks were literally
digging in to clean up the beach. Despite the chill and
hefty breeze, about 20 residents came down to pitch in.
“When you’re working,” Joel Haravay remarked, “it’s really
not cold.”
This was the second consecutive year that a beach
clean-up effort took place at Cryder, and it turned out
to be a little different than last year. In 2017, the beach
hadn’t been touched in several years, and the big story
then was the large number of big rocks that were all over
the place.
Oh make no mistake; the beach was certainly loaded
with rocks this year, but most were smaller, clearly
having been washed up on the shore during hide tides
8 CRYDER POINT COURIER | MAY 2018 | WWW.QUEENSCOURIER.COM
The gardeners are finished!
and storms. But as Dorene Finnegan observed, “There’s
more garbage than last year.” Indeed there was, and the
debris included a good deal of wood, a mysterious rubber
tube and an errant large plastic container (which
thankfully was empty!). The supply of large plastic bags
came in very handy, and our porters came down to help
schlep everything up from the beach (thank you Jose
and Sergio!).
As always, it was a team effort. “Everybody is so tremendous,”
Madeline Kurlitz commented. “It’s great seeing
everyone doing their bit.” Everyone, that is, except for
Barbie and a couple of her friends, who decided they’d
rather sunbathe for a couple of hours. Slackers!
As always, thanks go to the Quality of Life Committee
for making this lovely day happen. Special thanks go to
the many volunteers, including Eileen Annechino, Mona
Blumenreich, Joseph and Carmela Leonardi, Mary Tompkins,
CeCe Schob, Dorene Finnegan, Carl and Deborah
Berg, Kostas and Natalie Sfeliniotis and their his kids.
Photos by Dorene Finnegan and Jill Davis
Posters were displayed along the promenade Many hands make light work!