Special kids help special place

Most kids would be disconsolate at having to be in school in July no matter what, but this bunch was special - they were happy.
The student group from P.S. 811 the High School of Teaching, was the first of five scheduled weekly groups to come to Oakland Lake in Bayside, on Thursday, July 17, and they were there to work, cleaning up around the footpath.
The trips were organized between the school and the Friends of Oakland Lake and Ravine, Inc., a non-profit group of local residents who have taken the 18,000 year-old legacy of the last ice age under their wing.
P.S. 811 is a special education facility spread out over nine offsites and the main building, at 61-25 Marathon Parkway in Little Neck.
“We try to do as many volunteer actions in the community as we can,” said Beth Altmann, a teacher from the school who was with the group. “Participating in these activities helps their development to enter the workplace.”
There was another bonus for these special students. Besides getting to work in teams as they beautified along the eastern edge of the lake near Cloverdale Boulevard and 46th Avenue, they got up close to the local fauna, including two white ducks.
“We’ve named them ‘Muddy’ and ‘Quacky’,” said Daniel Egers, president of the Friends group, much to the delight of his crew from the school.
“It’s absolutely great that we put this together, for the kids first, but also for the community,” he said.
Egers, who is spearheading a major project of the Friends to improve the walkway and the “back” areas around the western end of the lake, has the kids very much on his mind.
“We want them to do more than just clean up,” he said. “They’re going to help in painting some benches, so they get to see something lasting as a finished project,” Egers continued, explaining, “Let’s face it - picking up after people is a never-ending job and we don’t want them to get discouraged.”
As the group broke up into smaller teams to cover more ground, Gia Johnson, a wheelchair bound P.S. 811 student holding smiled broadly as she clasped tongs used for picking up trash. “I just don’t want to get too close to the water,” she said.