For the last two weeks, NY4P has been highlighting rock star advocates who do amazing work for their local parks and open spaces. Read more about their stories below.

Help NY4P support advocates like Roxanne, Nicole, and Toba by making a donation to NY4P.

 

Roxanne Delgado is the founder of Friends of Pelham Parkway: when she noticed trash piling up in her park, she immediately contacted the Parks Department, and soon after launched her first volunteer park cleanup. Friends of Pelham Parkway, formed in 2017, is a volunteer group dedicated to keeping the parkway safe and clean, while simultaneously encouraging park users to develop a love of nature. Roxanne and the group have participated in The Daffodil Project since 2017, beautifying their local park while teaching volunteers about the importance of caring for local green spaces. Today, Roxanne and the Friends group are members of the Play Fair Coalition. Roxanne joined us to testify at City Hall to help secure an increase to the parks budget, and she and her group planted 2,000 daffodils throughout the parkway this fall.

 

Nicole Huang is the Co-Founder of the Parent Child Relationship Association. While living in the Sunset Park and Dyker Heights neighborhoods of Brooklyn, she and other parents in her community wanted to better the experience of residents, many of whom were immigrants, while enhancing the parks and open spaces that residents frequent. One day, while in Chinatown with her children, Nicole approached a woman who was raking leaves by herself and asked how she could get involved with maintaining parks and open space. After learning of some ways to contribute, Nicole helped bring parents and their children together to participate in park cleanups and take part in social and community activism while deepening the bond between parents and their children. As a result of the work of Nicole and the Parent Child Relationship Association, many immigrants have had the opportunity to engage in both community and open space simultaneously. Nicole and her organization have participated in NY4P's Daffodil Project for multiple years, and planted over 20,000 daffodils bulbs this season. She also brought 20 volunteers to this year’s Brooklyn distribution, and her team was such a wonderful help to NY4P staff giving out bulbs that day!

 

Toba Potosky is the Co-Founder of Cadman Plaza Park Conservancy. In 2010, Toba and his neighbors were concerned with the state of their beloved neighborhood park, which was showing signs of significant wear and tear after years of heavy use. At first just a group of strangers with a shared desire, Toba and his neighbors soon became advocates for the strengthening of their community and maintenance of their open space. Today, Cadman Plaza Park Conservancy is an all-volunteer organization with steady programming: they rake leaves and plant flowers in the fall, paint and weed gardens in the spring, and sponsor live theater and a movie night in the summer. 

Toba and Cadman Plaza Park Conservancy have taken part in the Daffodil Project for many years, but 2019 marks a very special milestone. The Brooklyn War Memorial, one of the few NYC WWII memorials, is located in Cadman Plaza Park. Working with New Yorkers for Parks and the Daffodil Project over the past few years, conservancy members and volunteers have planted a total of 11,500 daffodils, one for each of the 11,500 Brooklyn residents who lost their lives in the Second World War, and whose names are displayed inside the memorial. Now, each spring, the park will be filled with daffodils in memory of those who sacrificed their lives in defense of freedom.

 

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