QUEENS — Two Forest Hills activists are hoping to further improve their local green space after graduating from a City Parks Foundation’s program for park community leaders.
Alexa Weitzman and Prameet Kumar from the Yellowstone Park Alliance were among 40 volunteers who completed the Partnerships for Parks Fellowship Academy program last week.
The free, six-month training program seeks to support community-based park groups and volunteers through workshops with guest speakers and consulting sessions.
"The program is geared towards community parks groups who are committed to getting to the next level of their development as a group or with a specific project," the organizers said in a statement.
“It was a great learning experience,” said Weitzman, a mother of a 2-year-old boy, who started the group less than a year ago out of concerns about a locking mechanism on the gates at the park's Katzman Playground.
The group, whose members frequent the park at Yellowstone Boulevard and 68th Avenue, has already amassed more than 350 members on its Facebook page.
With the guidance provided by the fellowship, the Forest Hills volunteers have already organized three events in the park, including planting about 1,000 daffodils bulbs last weekend.
They also brought the CityParks PuppetMobile to the park last summer to provide a free puppet show for neighborhood children and families and secured a commitment from Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz to update the gates at the playground.
The volunteers also learned the ins-and-outs of the city’s permitting process, how to identify neighborhood businesses to sponsors local events and how to obtain 501(c)3 status.
“Our next steps are establishing more of a structure within the group and setting more regular events,” Weitzman said.
