The time has come to make amends for strewing debris across Westchester’s beautiful expanses. Or, even if you’re a goody-two-shoes and keep your surroundings clean, pitch in and compensate for your neighbors’ laxness. Tomorrow, May 7 is Volunteer New York!’s fifth annual I Love My Park Day, which calls for residents to help refurbish their local landscapes after a long fall and winter lacking in TLC. And for those in our fair county, there are four geographically comprehensive opportunities to step up and beautify the places where we go for leisurely strolls and let our children frolic, which is another way to remind everyone that there’s little excuse to lay low.
If you’re a rivertowner, wend your way to Croton-on-Hudson’s Old Croton Aqueduct State Park between 9:30 am and 3 pm. They need your helping hands to pick up trail trash and pull out invasive plant life. It’s not sexy work, but it will prove quite cathartic and educational. But if it so happens that you’re closer to the Long Island Sound, come on down to Rye’s Jay Heritage Center between 10 am and noon, so named for New York founding father John Jay, but no less in need of an occasional sprucing up. Although for those of you more adjacent to parts further north up the Saw Mill, take a few minutes to swing by Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park in Yorktown Heights (also from 10 am to noon) or another spot that invokes the aforementioned John Jay, his Homestead State Historic Site in Katonah (any time between 9 am and 2 pm). The latter boasts 62 magisterial acres that could benefit from some preservationist love.
For more information, visit any of the links above and follow the instructions for how to contact team leaders and join their crew in giving back. Because on a weekend when we celebrate our moms, it’s imperative we save some dotage for Mother Nature herself.
