AYLUS Oakland Gardens Branch beautifies Bowne Playground (06/29/2024)

On June 29th, 2024, AYLUS Oakland Gardens held its 79th event by participating in “Its My Park Day” at Bowne Playground. During this event, we worked with Maureen Regan, Frank, Ada, and other park workers to beautify Bowne Playground. We picked up trash around the park, mulched the garden beds, and removed weeds to keep Bowne Playground clean and healthy.

We have worked with Maureen Regan several times in the past, at both Bowne Playground and the Olde Towne of Flushing Burial Ground Conservancy. Maureen is the Co-Chair of the latter. Maureen Regan has extensive experience working for the community. She has been working in the community for over 14 years and is the founder of Green Earth Urban Gardens, a nonprofit organization that focuses on gardening and green spaces within urban communities. We would like to thank her for working with us during this event, and we would also like to thank the park workers for providing us with tools for the event.

After we got the tools, we split into three groups. The first group focused on mulching the various garden beds in the park. This was done because mulch provides nutrition, suppresses weeds, and regulates temperature and water levels. The high school students worked to shovel the mulch into wheelbarrows and take it to garden beds. We soon ran into a problem: many of these garden beds were surrounded by fences. While we directly shoveled mulch into the garden bed closest to the mulch pile, we weren’t able to do this for the garden beds further away. To solve this problem, we lifted the wheelbarrows on top of the fence and poured the mulch into the garden beds. While we worked to transport the mulch, some of our other members used rakes to spread the mulch evenly across the garden beds.

The second group focused on removing garbage from the park. They went around the premises of the park with trash pickers and garbage bags to remove the litter from the ground. While the park wasn’t too dirty, it had a lot of visitors, so there was still a decent amount of trash to remove from the park, such as cigarette butts and wrappers.

The third group focused on removing weeds from the garden beds. They spread out among the garden beds and used rakes, shovels, and spades to dig the weeds out of the soil and put them into trash bags. This was done to ensure that the weeds did not outcompete the other plants in the garden. Our members made sure to only remove the weeds and not damage the other plants, which our members thought looked like large bushes.

Midway through the event, Maureen Regan graciously provided us with water, muffins, donuts, croissants, and apples. We sincerely appreciate her generosity and kindness. The food was delicious, and we thank her for going out of her way to provide water and food for us. After the break, we continued our work.

By the end of the event, we were able to remove large amounts of trash from the park and clear large amounts of weeds from the garden beds. The mulch pile was mostly used up, and we spread the remaining mulch around to ensure that none of it went to waste.

We would like to thank Maureen Regan, Ada, Frank, and all of the other park workers who helped us during the event. Thank you for letting us work with you, and we hope to collaborate with you again in the future. We would also like to thank our parent advisor team and all of the members who showed up to this event. Despite the heat, you endured and worked tirelessly to preserve Bowne Playground. You worked diligently and collaboratively, and your efforts have helped make Bowne Playground as clean and vibrant as it is today, ensuring that it can be enjoyed by visitors for years to come.

 

Our Volunteers:

Jia Qi (Angela) Liu: 3.5 hours

Hong Hao (Alfred) Liu: 3.5 hours

Ioknor Lin: 3.5 hours

Iokseng Lin: 3.5 hours

Ioklee Lin: 3.5 hours

Patrick Yeung: 3.5 hours

Benny Yeung: 3.5 hours

Stephanie ShiRan You: 3.5 hours

Amy Liu: 3.5 hours

Derrick Gao: 3.5 hours

Karis Yan-tung Lau: 3.5 hours

Shirley Chiu: 3.5 hours

Justin Cheong: 3.5 hours

Jerry Zhu: 3.5 hours

Jasmine Lin: 3.5 hours

Ethan Lin: 3.5 hours

Joanna Qu: 3.5 hours

Jasmine Qu: 3.5 hours

Aiden Lin: 3.5 hours

Brandon Lin: 3.5 hours

Jiaheng Yu: 3.5 hours

Shi Zhen Li: 3.5 hours

Shi Hao Li: 3.5 hours

Sophia Gao: 3.5 hours

Sabrina Gao: 3.5 hours

Carolyn Zhao: 3.5 hours

Alecia Zhao: 3.5 hours

Tong Ren: 3.5 hours

Haochen Liu: 3.5 hours

Tian Xiang Ding: 3.5 hours

YuXin Liu: 3.5 hours

Le Ren: 3.5 hours

Yi Chen Liu: 3.5 hours

Ruiqi He: 3.5 hours

Elyssa Lin: 3.5 hours

Ziheng Jiao: 3.5 hours

Eric Zheng: 3.5 hours

Alex Lu: 3.5 hours

Tyler Siegel: 3.5 hours

Cindy Siegel: 3.5 hours

Ian Lee: 3.5 hours

Elina Lee: 3.5 hours

Huizhen Piao: 3.5 hours

Sophia Lin: 3.5 hours

Mandy Lin: 3.5 hours

Sophia Xu: 3.5 hours

Anthony Xu: 3.5 hours

Emily Chen: 3.5 hours

Howard Yang: 3.5 hours

Sophia ShiHan You: 3.5 hours

XiLin Huang: 3.5 hours

Isabella Wang: 3.5 hours

Erica Li: 3.5 hours

Anthony Lin: 3.5 hours

Vicki Lin: 3.5 hours

Xiang Xiyu: 3.5 hours

Albert Tang: 3.5 hours

Eric Yu: 3.5 hours

Liam Cheung: 3.5 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: Anthony Lin

Reviewed by: Jia Qi (Angela) Liu

Updated: July 3, 2024 — 2:23 am

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