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The all-volunteer Charles Park beautification project is set for this weekend, Oct. 5 and Oct. 6.
By Michael V. Cusenza
The latest Frank M. Charles Memorial Park beautification project is set for this weekend—and anyone that loves the federal recreation space is invited to lend a helping green thumb.
City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park) and the Jamaica Bay/Rockaway Park Conservancy have secured funding for the project.
“We’re looking for volunteers,” Ulrich said last week at the Howard Beach Lindenwood Civic Association meeting. “Your money is being invested in Charles Park.”
On Sunday, Sept. 29, volunteer crews prepped the planting area from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. This Saturday and Sunday (Oct. 5 and 6), all interested parties are encouraged to help install thousands of plants from the sign at the main entrance all the way to the flag pole.
“We’re not planting more bushes that are going to die a month later,” Ulrich quipped.
“Come on down and help out and every time you walk around the park you will see the beautiful landscape that you helped to create,” conservancy leaders wrote on Facebook.
Charles Park is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area. Named after a World War I hero who was raised in Howard Beach and killed in France on July 21, 1918, the green space was renamed Frank M. Charles Memorial Park in 1940 and became part of Gateway in 1972. It’s operated by the National Park Service and the City Department of Parks and Recreation.
