Although Earth Day only comes once a year, some community members in Sunnyside make cleaning up and beautifying the neighborhood a year-round commitment. Recently, Assemblymember Margaret Markey praised the volunteers from the Friends of Sunnyside Gardens Park as they cleaned up outside the park.
“These neighbors love their community and their volunteer efforts set an outstanding example of how citizens are prepared to come forward in these tight economic times to pitch in and make their neighborhood greener and cleaner,” Markey said.
Ciaran Staunton, the leader of Friends of Sunnyside Gardens Park, is working with the city Department of Transportation, which has jurisdiction over the Barnet Avenue area, and the City Sanitation Department, which arrived at the end of their Saturday clean-up session to haul away several truckloads of debris that had been collected by the volunteers.
“The Barnett Avenue frontage of the park has been a major dumping ground for years,” Staunton said. “We decided to clean it up and add plantings to help improve the area as major renovation of the park is now nearing completion.”
