On Monday, August 21, 2023, from 9:30 am to 11:30 am, volunteers from the Oakland Gardens Branch cleaned and picked up trash in our local park, Alley Park. Our board members and parent advisor met with Mike Kuchinskas, a park employee responsible for managing group activities in the park, to discuss future events. All this is to provide a better environment for our community to enjoy.
Before the event started, our board members and our parents advisor met with Mike to talk about future events. Mike believes that our branch is doing something good which will change our community for the better. He was really welcoming and supportive of our branch. He provided trash pickers, gloves, and large trash bags for our members to use for events, even though he didn’t need to. While discussing this, he also said that he will contact us about any special events and future events to support us, so that we can help and spread more awareness of our branch and AYLUS as a whole.
During the two hours we were cleaning up the park, we noticed there were a lot of garbage left behind near benches and tables: coming to the conclusion that there was a party or something similar hosted in the park. We spent our time cleaning the leftovers from that event up: picking up plates, chopsticks, and stale food left behind. While we were doing this, a family passing by told us that they believed what we were doing was meaningful and was setting a good example for the kids in the community. Nearing the 1.5 hour mark, we met a resident near the park, who volunteers his own time to clean up the park. We took a picture with our fellow volunteer, as we better the park together.
At the end of today’s event, we managed to collect lots of trash from the park: putting them into one pile to be collected when the garbage truck comes to pick up the trash. Through this, we managed to leave the park cleaner than when we first entered. We are glad that we were able to create a better environment for our community.
Special thank you to Mike Kuchinskas for going out of his way and providing us with trash pickers, large trash bags, and gloves! We are looking forward to having more volunteer events with you and the park!
Our Volunteers:
Jia Qi Liu (Angela): 2 hours
Susan Yang: 2 hours
Sophia ShiHan You: 2 hours
Brandon Lin: 2 hours
Aiden Lin: 2 hours
Vicki Lin: 2 hours
Hong Hao Liu (Alfred): 2 hours
Anthony Lin: 2 Hours
Stephanie ShiRan You: 2 Hours
Velma Wu: 2 Hours
Verina Wu: 2 Hours
Report by Jia Qi Liu (Angela), Andy Chen, Jessica Lin, Susan Yang