Photo Courtesy of the Breezy Point Garden Club
As a “Love Your Block” award winner, the Breezy Point Garden Club has earned a $1,000 cash grant, project planning assistance, and City services to beautify and transform a public space.
By Forum Staff
Three Queens community collectives were among the winners of the 2017 “Love Your Block” awards, the City announced last Friday.
The Breezy Point Garden Club, IS 145 in Jackson Heights, and We Love Kew Gardens, along with 22 other organizations, emerged victorious at the ninth annual LYB – a program in which volunteer-led neighborhood groups compete for a chance to win a $1,000 cash grant, project planning assistance, and City services to beautify and transform a public space.
“Congratulations to all of this year’s ‘Love Your Block’ awardees, especially those selected from Queens,” said Queens Borough President Melinda Katz. “The Breezy Point Garden Club, the Joseph Pulitzer Middle School in Jackson Heights and We Love Kew Gardens are deserving recipients of these awards, and Queens looks forward to seeing firsthand the great job they will do to spruce up their neighborhoods. The de Blasio Administration, NYC Service, the Citizens Committee for New York City and the Departments of Parks, Transportation, Environmental Protection and Sanitation also deserve to be commended for undertaking the Love Your Block program, which has had a direct impact in beautifying our communities.”
Love Your Block offers support to the groups – particularly groups working in high-need NYC neighborhoods – in the form of a $1,000 grant. In addition, the grant recipients request and receive project planning assistance as well as neighborhood services from the Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Parks and Recreation, Department of Sanitation and the Department of Transportation, to transform a city block or group of consecutive blocks. Free services from these City agencies include trash collection on the day of the project; vacant lot cleanup; graffiti removal; dead tree removal; tree stewardship workshops; resident surveys to plant new street trees; provision of woodchip mulch for gardening projects; repair of and installation of street signs and street lights; traffic safety surveys; and installation of bicycle racks and speed bumps.
According to the administration, a selection committee of representatives from NYC Service, Citizens Committee, and the City agencies reviews Love Your Block grant applications. All awarded projects demonstrate the ability to host a high-impact neighborhood improvement event that utilizes at least one City service and could engage at least 20 volunteers on their respective Love Your Block event days and block celebration days. Additional criteria used to review applications include project sustainability, the group’s capacity, neighborhood need as well as the group’s history and knowledge of neighborhood issues.
“Love makes a city block better,” said Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. “So this year’s ‘Love Your Block’ awards, from Harlem and East Harlem to Hell’s Kitchen and the East Village – as well as the other boroughs – will help make the whole city better. By supporting those who volunteer to make their blocks better, NYC Service and the Citizens Committee for New York City are fertilizing seeds that will blossom for years to come.”
Since its inception in 2009, more than 270 Love Your Block Awards have been granted, with more than 900 City services provided and nearly 10,000 community volunteers having been engaged in beautification projects.
“When we come together to beautify our neighborhoods,” added Mayor Bill de Blasio, “we build a fairer and more just City that is stronger than it was yesterday.”
