FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM NOVEMBER 8, 2018 • THE QUEENS COURIER 33
Queens County Farm Museum gets new leadership
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@cnglocal.com
@QNS
For the fi rst time in 30 years the Queens
County Farm Museum is under new leadership
following the retirement of Amy
Fishetti-Boncardo last month.
Th e new executive director of the
47-acre farm in Floral Park is Jennifer
Walden Weprin, a resident of Hollis Hills,
who brings an impressive resume to the
post.
“Amy built an incredibly strong cultural
organization here over the last three
decades from the ground up, literally.
What better organization is there to
step into?” Weprin said. “Th e Board of
Trustees and the staff here are focused
and dedicated to what it does, the budget
is strong and the mission is clear. I’m just
going to take it to the next step and grow
it to the next level.”
Prior to taking over the Queens County
Farm Museum, Weprin served as the
Director of Cultural Aff airs and Tourism
in the offi ce of the Queens Borough
President since 2016.
“My two plus years at Borough Hall
were fabulous,” Weprin said. “Melinda
Katz is such a resource and advocate for
the borough and supporting the arts. I
represented her on 20 cultural boards
around the city, that alone was a full-time
job, and I wasn’t just a body in a chair, I
was a resource.”
From 2011 to 2016, Weprin worked
at the Louis Armstrong House Museum
in Corona where she was the director of
Marketing and External Aff airs, where
she designed and implemented a marketing
and programming strategy that yielded
a 21 percent increase in museum visitors..
“Th at organization will always be in my
heart,” Weprin said. “Th ey are another
great Queens organization.”
Now she is thrilled to be at the Queens
County Farm Museum which is the second
largest cultural institution in Queens
based on annual visitation numbers. Th e
site dates back to 1697 and occupies New
York City’s largest remaining tract of
undisturbed farmland where 80 varieties
of vegetables and over 75 varieties of fl owers
are grown annually, including 6,000
pounds of tomatoes, 4,000 pounds of zucchini,
2,500 pounds of eggplant and 1,600
pounds of winter squash.
“It’s a farm, it’s a museum, it’s a cultural
institution and we teach youngsters conservation,”
Weprin said. “It serves a vital
resource connecting people to agriculture
and the environment creating conversations
about biodiversity, nutrition, health
and wellness, climate change and preserving
local history.
Th e farm, which is a New York City
Landmark and is on the National Register
of Historic Places and a member of the
Historic House Trust of New York City,
also composted over 20,000 pounds of
food scraps from GrownNYC and 2,500
pounds in tumbler bins from the surrounding
communities.
For Weprin, who is married to former
City Councilman Mark Weprin, her
favorite aspect of the new job is the children
who visit on school fi eld trips, over
37 percent of annual student groups visit
during October.
“It’s just amazing to see the children
fl ood the grounds learning new things
outside the classroom,” Weprin said. “Th e
Courtesy of Queens County Farm Museum
hayrides take off from right under my
barn-offi ce window and you hear their
squeaks of excitement. We didn’t have
that at Borough Hall.”
Beautifi cation group plants bulbs at Jackson Heights post offi ce
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
adomenech@qns.com
@AODNewz
Springtime in Jackson Heights will be
a little more colorful next year now that
a new type of flower will be planted
in the two gardens outside of the post
office located at 78-02 37th Ave.
Community members are invited to
join the Jackson Heights Beautification
Group (JHBG) this Saturday, Nov. 3,
at 10 a.m. who will be planting allium
bulbs, a violet colored flower with petals
shooting out from a center, like the
sparks of a chrysanthemum firework.
Like all of its efforts, the work of
JHBG provides two different services:
to enrich and beautify the neighborhood
while also making it more environmentally
sustainable.
“Kids are getting a little nature lesson
here in Jackson Heights,” said former
president of JHBG Len Maniace,
about the post office gardens that
50 x 9 feet and attracted more bees,
birds and butterflies to the surrounding
area. Maniace has noticed countless
passersby commenting on the garden
and the wildlife it attracts. The garden
also works to decrease overall temperature—
which all plants, flowers and
trees do—through transpiration or the
evaporation of water through plant
leaves.
The work of JHBG is in a way is keeping
the neighborhood true to its roots.
Although Jackson Heights is one of the
most densely populated neighborhoods
in Jackson Heights it does not feel that
way, according to Maniace.
“There’s a lot of buildings here with
front gardens, a lot of open space is
part of the buildings,” said Maniace. Photo courtesy of the Jackson Heights Beautifi cation Group
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