Members participating in AYLUS Oakland Gardens’ 68th event on April 27th, 2024 helped clean up Little Bay Park. Located next to Throgs Neck Bridge, this park’s luscious green grass, soft spring breeze, and calm waters made it seem as if it was idyllic. However, upon further examination, trash was everywhere; bottle caps, food wrappers, and plastic bags were sprinkled all along the beach. A washed-up crustacean was even found on its backside, underneath soda cups and all sorts of other garbage. Thanks to Stephen Cunningham, we were able to locate shovels and trash pickers in a storage container and use them for today’s event.
Some members who had helped clean this park last year remembered that there was something that they weren’t able to get. For around an hour, a group of eight, along with our supervisor Anastasia, shoveled around the metal object in hopes of being able to get it out of the sand. After they were able to pull it out of the sand and push it to the side, we were told that the park workers would help carry it out onto a truck for proper disposal. Even with it uncovered, nobody was able to figure out what the object was.
The younger members used trash pickers to pick up pieces of garbage stuck in seaweed and buried under the sand and managed to fill up at least 30 bags. With the help of Robert Taylor, who came by with a garbage truck, we were able to throw out all of the trash we collected. Although we had worked for three and a half hours, the park was nowhere near clean. This put things in perspective for us: littering has a tremendously detrimental effect on the environment.
Residents who were at the park expressed that for this neighborhood, trash is a pretty big problem. One woman explained that it is very important for children to be taught at school and at home that littering has grave consequences. She has seen many people just throw their trash into the Little Bay, only for it to be washed up shore. Just like the crustacean we saw, many animals near the bay can be in danger when they are tangled up in plastic or when they accidentally eat wrappers. The woman hopes that more people will learn how to respect nature and pass those values onto the younger generations as well.
We would like to thank all Aylus Oakland Gardens members for participating in today’s event, as well as the NYC Parks workers Stephen, Anastasia, and Robert for their assistance. We are also grateful to Mike Kuchinskas, who helped us with this event last year. We hope that we can continue learning how to be more environmentally-conscious and we are very grateful for the neighborhood’s continued support.
Our volunteers:
Jia Qi Liu (Angela): 3.5 hours
Hong Hao Liu (Alfred): 3.5 hours
Ioknor Lin: 3.5 hours
Ioklee Lin: 3.5 hours
Iokseng Lin: 3.5 hours
Aiden Lin: 3.5 hours
Brandon Lin: 3.5 hours
Xilin Huang: 3.5 hours
Sunny Chen: 3.5 hours
Amy Liu: 3.5 hours
Stephanie You: 3.5 hours
Vicki Lin: 3.5 hours
Anthony Lin: 3.5 hours
Jasmine Lau: 3.5 hours
Sunny Lau: 3.5 hours
Athena Luo: 3.5 hours
Songen Yang: 3.5 hours
Zhen Xie: 3.5 hours
Sophia You: 3.5 hours
Zhiyan Zeng: 3.5 hours
Xiyan Zeng: 3.5 hours
Melody Ke: 3.5 hours
Derrick Gao: 3.5 hours
Sophia Gao: 3.5 hours
Sabrina Gao: 3.5 hours
Erica Li: 3.5 hours
Kaisa Wu: 3.5 hours
Austin Li: 3.5 hours
Darren Li: 3.5 hours
Hannah Zheng: 3.5 hours
Maggie Liu: 3.5 hours
Patricia Dai: 3.5 hours
Princia Dai: 3.5 hours
Ryan Wu: 3.5 hours
Ethan Lin: 3.5 hours
Jasmine Lin: 3.5 hours
Benny Zou: 3.5 hours
Zhengyilan Fang: 3.5 hours
Shiqi Zheng: 3.5 hours
Xitong Zheng: 3.5 hours
Sophia Li: 3.5 hours
Nerissa Xu: 3.5 hours
Paxton Xu: 3.5 hours
Siqi Chen: 3.5 hours
Chong Chen: 3.5 hours
Mo Yu: 3.5 hours
Hangxu Yu: 3.5 hours
Eric Yu: 3.5 hours
Thomas Liang: 3.5 hours
William Liang: 3.5 hours
Austin Yuel: 3.5 hours
Evaline Yuel: 3.5 hours
Xiangxi Yu: 3.5 hours
Queena Li: 3 hours
Matthew Lin: 2.5 hours
Albert Tang: 2 hours
Parent Adviser Team:
Hsinhui Liao (Karen)
Cui Li (Fannie)
Teng Fei Liu (Faye)
Report Written by: Iokseng Lin
Reviewed by: Jia Qi Liu (Angela)
