By Steve Mosco
A group that strives to help veterans get back into the workforce is turning its attention toward revitalizing the city’s storm damaged shore.
Wounded Nature – Working Veterans, a nonprofit charity employing veterans in environmental clean-up projects, is seeking veteran and non-veteran volunteers to clean up and restore Jamaica Bay’s Gateway National Recreation Area this week.
Groups will be meeting and cleaning for three days – Wednesday, Thursday and Friday – in an area devastated by Hurricane Sandy. Much of the park remains closed and the group’s goal is to get several sections reopened for public use.
Volunteers are instructed to meet at the Floyd Bennett Field visitor center, 50 Aviation Rd., Brooklyn, at 7:30 a.m. to collect gear, receive instructions and be assigned to teams. Work will start each morning at 8 a.m. until 2 p.m.
The three-day clean-up effort will take aim at three different locations – the shoreline at RC field Wednesday, the sensitive grasslands that are home to bird species on Thursday and Hanger B and surrounding campgrounds Friday.
Volunteers are asked to bring gloves and garbage bags and to dress for all weather, as the cleanup will take place regardless of conditions. Also, organizers ask that volunteers bring their own water and snacks.
No registration is necessary, but if potential volunteers have any questions, contact Rudy Socha of Wounded Nature – Working Veterans by email at rudy@woundednature.org.
