President Obama had declared Sept 11th to be a day of service and it seemed like a good idea to me. Friday was a day off. I always tried not to work on the day. Central Park was an important place for people to reconnect, to mourn, and just be after September 11th. In August 2009, a freak storm caused massive damage in the North End of Central Park. 500 trees were lost. 1000 more had to be pruned. Light Poles were down. This massive storm cleanup was not really in the Park's budget.
My idea was to raise a lot of awareness and hopefully some money for the cleanup effort by organizing a fundraising walking tour of the North End. (This was before this blog). I wrote up an entry for the Day of Service website. I let the powers that be at Central Park (Doug Blonsky President) know about the plan and asked if someone from the Conservancy who knew the details could meet us. I went to my day job.
The copyright on this Central Park North End postcard is 1905.
A few hours later I received a call from Suzanne Ma at the Associated Press who was doing an article about Day of Service projects and she liked mine. I sent an email to tour guide friend and mentor Justin Ferate who certainly raised awareness by forwarding my information to his mailing list. I know my efforts raised funds. I will never know how much.
Only a handful of us showed up for the walk on that rainy Friday, but Regina Alvarez, the director of Horticulture and Woodland Management, gave us an amazing overview of the damage and plans for the future.
The day after, Suzanne Ma's article appeared in newspapers all over the world. My parents read about me in Tucson before I had a chance to tell them. Here is a link to the article in the Huffington Post. Unfortunately, there was no direct link for donations listed. Fortunately, the money was raised and this is what the area was like before some more storm damage from hurricane Irene.
For those of you who live here and consider Central Park your backyard and for those of you who visit, there are many ways to keep Central Park alive and Central to New York for generations to come.
Learn about donating money or volunteering time here. Support the Conservancy by buying from the Gift Shop!
Here is a great video about one of the Secrets of the North End of Central Park.
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