Willow Glen Resident
News
City Year volunteers will help spruce up Greater Gardner areas
By Mayra Flores De Marcotte
The neighborhoods of the Greater Gardner Coalition have found a resource that will infuse their projects with organization and youthful energy.
The coalition, which includes the Gardner District, Gregory Plaza and North Willow Glen neighborhoods, formed a collaboration with City Year, a youth organization that focuses on community service and hands-on work with communities that are part of the Strong Neighborhoods Initiative.
City Year is a member of AmeriCorps and strives to involve young people, ages 17 to 24, in community service while building leadership skills.
City Year and the Strong Neighborhoods Initiative became partners in 2001, working with neighborhoods and schools on general projects, City Year service director Elizabeth Nielsen said. In 2005, the partnership expanded to permit neighborhoods and schools to apply for volunteer help on specific projects.
The coalition requested City Year's help for May 12 to assist in a variety of projects in the three neighborhoods.
"The presentation that Heather [Keag] gave was short and sweet and got me revved up and ready to work with them," North Willow Glen resident Ken Eklund said. Keag is City Year's program director.
Eklund is looking forward to City Year's help.
"It's a tremendous shot in the arm in terms of energy," Eklund said. "It's a perfect fit for us. We don't have the ability to mobilize many people at one time, so there are projects that can get done with City Year that the neighborhoods simply can't accomplish."
Keag agrees. "The neighborhoods have a need, and we have the resources."
City Year will provide 70 volunteers over a seven-hour period to help install the "Circle of Dreams" project.
The public art project will showcase artistic expressions engraved in bronze pyramids by residents. The project will be installed on iron posts in the Willis Avenue cul-de-sac across from the Gardner Community Center.
City Year participants will also paint the bridge over Interstate 87 to prepare it for a future community art project.
Along with the City Year volunteers, each project will have a resident acting as project captain.
"Both projects will be taking place simultaneously, and will only take about two hours among the 70 volunteers," Keag said.
These two projects have been discussed and are moving forward, but there are still additional volunteer service hours available, and the neighborhood coalition is brainstorming other projects that can be done that same day.
Some of the ideas discussed included Fuller Park cleaning and landscaping, Gregory Bridge landscaping, and North Willow Glen concrete removal and hole digging for an upcoming tree planting in May.
