Vols beautify schools

A record number of New Yorkers recently revitalized 122 New York City public schools - including 16 in Queens - during the 16th Annual New York Cares Day.
On Saturday, October 20, volunteers began work at 9:30 a.m., completing more than 600 projects by 3:30 p.m. Almost 8,500 volunteers added more than 350 murals to playgrounds and hallways, painted hundreds of classrooms, reorganized libraries, and tended to scores of school gardens, citywide.
While TV stars were volunteering in Manhattan, and public-relations attention in Queens was focused on P.S. 84 - the Steinway school in Astoria, kids in northeast Queens were quietly doing their share at Hillcrest and Flushing High Schools and 14 other schools throughout the area.
The student volunteers completed projects such as re-organizing libraries, planting flowers, painting classrooms and fences, creating colorful new murals, organizing storage areas and more.
New York Cares Day is the city’s largest day of hands-on volunteering. The value of the total volunteer hours plus donated materials is equivalent to nearly one million dollars. It is organized by New York Cares, one of the city’s leading volunteer groups.
“Thanks to New York Cares and its volunteers, our schools are brighter, more inviting places for children to learn,” said New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein. “For 16 years, New York Cares Day has been a great way for New Yorkers to get personally involved with our schools and make a hands-on contribution.”
Sponsors for New York Cares Day included Fortune 50 giants like Citi, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch. Numerous other companies like the National Basketball Association and Time Warner Cable also did their part.
The New York City Department of Education provided in-kind donations of materials used at schools across the city.