6 times • APRIL 30, 2015 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.timesnewsweekly.com EVERGREEN PARK RENOVATIONS CELEBRATED IN GLENDALE BY KELLY MARIE MANCUSO [email protected] @TimesNewsweekly City officials and civic leaders celebrated the start of Evergreen Park’s reconstruction during a ceremony on April 24 at the Glendale green space. Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley joined Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski and others to ceremonially break ground on renovations to the playground on the national observance of Arbor Day. “It’s really a p p r o p r i a t e , because it’s Arbor Day, that we have all of this green coming into this park,” Lewandowski said. Construction on the park began in early April and is expected to take about one year to complete. The first phase of the park’s reconstruction will include replacing the underused bocce and shuffleboard courts with a garden-inspired playground, spray showers, new shrubs and plantings. According to Lewandowski, the new playground, themed with the title “Play in the Garden,” will feature new spray showers with “large green misting leaves and directional jets and bubblers, in a field of leaves and vines.” “It’s going to promote innovative play for toddlers and young children,” Lewandowski said. “This will be a really creative spot where kids can play. The days of the old concrete spray shower are gone. This will be much more interactive for children.” Crowley allocated $1 million in funding for this first phase of the park’s reconstruction. The councilwoman considers Evergreen Park a “special place” as it’s where she used to play softball while growing up. “This project is a long time coming,” Crowley said. Community Board 5 was well represented at the affair in the form of Chairperson Vincent Arcuri, District Manager Gary Giordano, Parks Committee Chair Steven Fiedler, Paul Kerzner and Tom Dowd. Also on hand were Mike Liendo and David Sands, the respective president and vice president of the Liberty Park Home Owners Association, and Barry Grodenchik, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz’s director of community boards. Community members, including Sands and Liendo, first approached Crowley back in 2009, shortly after she was elected, regarding refurbishment of the park. According to Fiedler, a design committee rejected the plan on two occasions before finally granting approval to proceed. “I’m glad to see this move forward,” he said. “It’s a great design.” Crowley also announced that an additional $2.4 million in funding for the second phase of improvements was secured in conjunction with Katz and the mayor’s office. These improvements may include refurbishment of the asphalt field, basketball courts and comfort stations. “I want to make sure everybody stays engaged as we come together to plan the next phase of this project,” Crowley said. Principal Ann Marie Scalfano and first-graders from P.S. 68 also attended the groundbreaking ceremony. The children carried handmade signs and banners thanking Crowley for her funding and support of Evergreen Park. “It’s exciting, because this $1 million allocation will go a long way in making Evergreen Park a better park for the community,” Crowley said. “The park is uniquely named ‘Evergreen’ and it’s important to keep it young and fresh for the young people of the community.” Earth Week celebration at Bushwick Campus By ANTHONY GIUDICE [email protected] @A_GiudiceReport TIMES NEWSWEEKLY/Photo by Anthony Giudice Members of the Bushwick Campus Food Justice Team at the juicing station during the Earth Week celebration. TIMES NEWSWEEKLY/Photos by Kelly Marie Mancuso Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski and other civic leaders broke ground on the reconstruction of Glendale’s Evergreen Park on April 24. Education, food and fun were brought together when the students and faculty of Bushwick Campus’ four high schools celebrated Earth Week with EcoStation:NY at the Bushwick Campus Farm and Greenhouse on April 23. The celebration of the planet included tours of the Bushwick Campus Farm and Greenhouse, cooking demonstrations, food tastings, compost workshops, hydroponic and aquaponic workshops in the greenhouse as well as musical, dance and spoken word performances. “We wanted to see better food in the neighborhood,” said Sean-Michael Fleming, the executive director and co-founder of EcoStation:NY. “We also wanted to spark conversations about the environment. Hopefully this teaches the students how to do urban farming.” EcoStation:NY is an independent, nonprofit organization that explores the intersection of social and environmental justice through community food and sustainable urban agriculture projects that educate, inspire, and empower students and members of the community. Students from the Bushwick Campus Food Justice Team helped make fruit and vegetable smoothies, guacamole and other tasty treats for eventgoers. The Food Justice Team is an after-school program of the Bushwick Campus, co-founded by EcoStation:NY, that teaches students the importance of environmental health, the community and the effects of our current food system on both. The cooking workshops and demonstrations were set up to inform not only the students, but the community, about sustainable and urban agriculture. “Our goal is to make sure students understand we aren’t just talking about the environment, but building the community as well,” said Glenda Ullauri, the Bushwick Campus Farm manager. “We want to get the students interested in urban agriculture and cooking together with the demos for the school and community.” The entire event was a learning experience for students and members of the Bushwick community. “We want to use food as a tool to open up conversations about issues with food,” Fleming said. “The way food is produced shouldn’t be harmful to the planet.” The Bushwick Campus Farm was founded in 2011, with the greenhouse coming a year later as part of the Bushwick Campus which is comprised of four high schools, Academy for Environmental Leadership, Bushwick School for Social Justice, Academy of Urban Planning, and Brooklyn School for Math and Research. Students from P.S. 68 took part in Friday’s groundbreaking.
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