This is the 72nd event held by the AYLUS Gardens Branch. On Saturday, May 25th, the weather was hot, showing the closeness of summer in Queens. AYLUS Oakland Gardens Branch worked together with Maureen, Ada, Frank, and other volunteers, such as volunteers from Townsend Harris High School, to help clean up Bowne Playground. Today marks the 10th anniversary of cleaning up Bowne Playground. It is also the 14th year that Maureen has worked to improve the community. Through thorough instructions from Maureen, we did a general clean-up of the park and weeding the garden beds.
During the event, our volunteers split into groups and spread out throughout the park for more efficiency. Maureen led everyone to a garden bed first, to demonstrate how to pull out the weeds. We want to stick the shovel into the ground as close as possible to the weed’s roots, as removing the roots will ensure the complete removal of the weeds. Then, we wiggle the shovel until the weed comes loose and out of the ground. This uprooted weed is then discarded into a garbage bag. We made sure while doing this, we left the grass alone. We learned that invasive plants and plants growing in unwanted areas are considered weeds. What’s more is that some plants are scientifically classified as weeds. While some groups were doing this in different garden beds, the others went and used garbage grabbers to pick up the trash. They start from the end of the playground to make sure they picked up all the garbage they can. Through these groups, all ages work together to help better the community.
While cleaning up the park, a group has found a dead rat lying there. They informed Maureen and the adults, and it was safely got rid of. Another thing is that while we were weeding, we noticed that there were some things from the plants that stuck to our clothes. Maureen informed us that these are the plant’s seeds. Some plants pollinate by having their seeds attached to what brush by them. This is to ensure a further distance the seed will travel and grow into another plant. These seeds work like velcro, which was what inspired the creation of velcro, as it stuck to the clothes of travelers that pass through them.
At the end of our event, through everyone’s hard work, we managed to clean and weed out the entire playground, ending with a total of 75 bags of weeds and garbage. We would like to thank the members that came to help out with the event. We would also like to thank Maureen for her guidance, help, and food during the event, and we really hope to work with you again in the future. Thank you for continuing to better the community and making it a better place. We also would like to thank Ada and other volunteers from the community as well, as their help allowed us to accomplish much more.
Our volunteers:
Jia Qi Liu: 3.5 hours
Hong Hao Liu: 3.5 hours
Vicki Lin: 3.5 hours
Aiden Lan: 3.5 hours
Jerry Su: 3.5 hours
Sophia You: 3.5 hours
XiLin Huang: 3.5 hours
Hebe Tang: 3.5 hours
Shirley Chiu: 3.5 hours
Justin Cheong: 3.5 hours
Erica Li: 3.5 hours
Karis YanTung Lau: 3.5 hours
Alex Lu: 3.5 hours
Rex He: 3.5 hours
Hannah Liu: 3.5 hours
Evina Liu: 3.5 hours
Ayden Shi: 3.5 hours
Owen Liu: 3.5 hours
Kingsley Chen: 3.5 hours
Tian Xiang Ding: 3.5 hours
Blake Han: 3.5 hours
Jun Zhe Ling: 3.5 hours
Stephanie You: 3.5 hours
Sophia Lin: 3.5 hours
Thomas Liang: 3.5 hours
William Liang: 3.5 hours
Anthony Lin: 3.5 hours
Ivey Lam: 3.5 hours
Jordan Leung: 3.5 hours
Ricky Song: 3.5 hours
Bowen Chen: 3.5 hours
Sophia Gao: 3.5 hours
Derrick Gao: 3.5 hours
Aaron Shi: 3.5 hours
Sabrina Gao: 3.5 hours
Bryce Xue: 3.5 hours
Melody Ke: 3.5 hours
Nina Yang: 3.5 hours
Grace Lin : 3.5 hours
Yuan Gu: 3.5 hours
Emily Zheng: 3.5 hours
Hannah Zheng: 3.5 hours
Brandon Lin: 3.5 hours
Aiden Lin: 3.5 hours
Evaline Yuel: 3.5 hours
Austin Yuel: 3.5 hours
Kaisa Wu: 3.5 hours
Ziheng Jiao: 3.5 hours
Huizhen Piao: 3 hours
Lucas Lin: 3 hours
Jasmine Lin: 3 hours
Ethan Lin: 3 hours
Albert Tang: 3 hours
Matthew Lin: 2.5 hours
Queena Li: 2.5 hours
Sunny Lau: 2.5 hours
Jasmine Lau: 2.5 hours
Hangxu Yu: 2 hours
Parent Adviser Team:
Cui Fang Li (Fannie): 4.5 hours
Teng Fei Liu (Faye): 4.5 hours
Hsinhui Liao (Karen): 4.5 hours
Report Written by: Jia Qi (Angela) Liu
