This is the 138th event held by AYLUS Oakland Gardens, on Saturday March 15th 2025 from 9:00 to 12:00 at the Lewis Latimer Museum.
The Lewis Latimer Museum consists of Lewis Latimer’s house and surrounding property. Latimer was an inventor who improved many technologies of the time. He was also a patent draftsman. Lewis Latimer made many revolutions for black people due to racism back in the time he lived, although he was often overlooked in favor of white inventors. Some examples of the contributions Lewis Latimer made to the scientific community and the public were improving carbon filaments for light bulbs, which made them more durable and longer lasting. He also worked with Thomas Edison, becoming a patent investigator and expert witness for him. Not only that, but he drafted drawings and contributed to Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone. We believe that it was important to honor his memory and legacy, so our volunteer team helped clean up the Lewis Latimer Museum and the area around it.
During the event our volunteers assisted Maureen, her Husband, museum director Ran Yan, park employees Peter Varvatsovus and Mattia Fazzi. Maureen directed us to clean up the leaves, collect fallen branches, pick up garbage and loosen the soil around several trees.
During the event Maureen first split us into several groups : group one, consisting of eight people, was assigned to pick up leaves and debris from the front of the Lewis Latimer House; group two, consisting of seven people, was assigned to pick up leaves and debris from the right side of the museum; group three , which was the largest group – consisted of twelve people- , was assigned to pick up leaves and debris from the back garden, where we planted a large number of tulip bulbs, and the rear of the house; group four, which consisted of seven people, was assigned to loosen the soil around six trees using rakes and shovels- group four also use the rakes to create circles around each tree, adding an artistic aspect to their work; and group five, which consisted of eight people, was assigned to pick up trash around the perimeter of the museum, both inside the fence and outside the fence. After finishing these areas, Maureen gave our volunteer group a snack break at 10:45, by this time our group had collected around 25 bags of debris and branches. Maureen brought hot chocolate, milk, cream cheese bagels, and butter bagels. After the snack break, all the groups moved to the left and rear side of the Lewis Latimer Museum to continue cleaning up debris. After we we’re done raking up leaves, a few volunteers helped bag up the remaining loose branches on museum property. In the end we finished with 39 full bags of debris.
When we were finished, we gathered around the front of the Lewis Latimer Museum for a group picture with everyone that helped us today. We would like to thank Maureen for providing us with snacks and we would also like to thank her for the opportunity to work with her again. We would like to thank all the park service employees, Peter and Mattia, and Ran Yan, for helping us clean up the Lewis Latimer Museum. Lastly we would like to thank all participants in today’s event for helping us clean up the Lewis Latimer Museum.
Our volunteers:
1. Ioklee Lin: 3 hours
2. Ioknor Lin: 3 hours
3. Kaisa Wu: 3 hours
4. Jerry Shan: 3 hours
5. Justin Cheong: 3 hours
6. Eric Zheng: 3 hours
7. Lucas Chen: 3 hours
8. Anson Gao: 3 hours
9. Eason Lin: 3 hours
10. Yuhan Lin: 3 hours
11. Terrence Cao: 3 hours
12. Zhuoning Li: 3 hours
13. Mandy Lin: 3 hours
14. Sophia You: 3 hours
15. Yifei Mei: 3 hours
16. Benny Yeung: 3 hours
17. Alex Lu: 3 hours
18. Steven Zhu: 3 hours
19. Rex He: 3 hours
20. Zhiheng Zhou: 3 hours
21. Patrick Yeung: 3 hours
22. Vicki Lin: 3 hours
23. Alexander Lu: 3 hours
24. Evan Li: 3 hours
25. Amber Tsai: 3 hours
26. Opal Tsai: 3 hours
27. Tian Zhu Xie: 3 hours
28. Isabella Wang: 3 hours
29. Ian Lee: 3 hours
30. Elina Lee: 3 hours
31. Matthew Lin: 3 hours
32. Derrick Gao: 3 hours
33. Aaron Shi: 3 hours
34. Hongyu Wei: 3 hours
35. Sophia Xu: 3 hours
36. Anthony Xu: 3 hours
37. Yuyan Fan: 3 hours
38. Ryan Wu: 3 hours
39. Nerissa Xu: 3 hours
40. Paxton Xu: 3 hours
41. Patrick Guan: 3 hours
42. Ivan Cao: 3 hours
43.Hong Hao Liu: 3 hours
44. Ricky Song: 3 hours
45. Sophia Lu: 1.5 hours
46. Kaden He: 1.5 hours
Parent Adviser Team:
Teng Fei Liu: 4 hours
Hsinhui Liao: 4 hours
Cui Fang Li: 4 hours
Report written by: Matthew Lin
Reviewed by: Jia Qi (Angela) Liu
