Elm Tree Elementary and Fall Leaves at FMCP!

This past week, the vibrant energy of young volunteers from PS 211 Elm Tree Elementary lit up Flushing Meadows Corona Park! Equipped with gloves, compost bags, rakes—and plenty of enthusiasm—these students made a meaningful impact during our cleanup event.

For many of the 130 5th graders who participated, this was their first volunteering experience. It was a valuable opportunity to instill the importance of civic engagement and environmental stewardship in the next generation. Teachers and parents also joined, connecting with students to emphasize the value of teamwork and responsibility. Together they were able to collect 261 bags by the end of the afternoon! 

A huge shoutout to our event staff! Latisha Williams, the park's Deputy Administrator with over 20 years of experience at the Parks Department, demonstrated tool usage to the 5th graders at the event. Her expertise made the learning experience hands-on and engaging.

Another shoutout goes to our Project Development Coordinator, Michael DeVito. He is in charge of organizing volunteer events like these at Flushing Meadows Corona Park, and worked closely with some of the classes. He was also able to talk to some of the students, explaining how the process benefits the park by transforming the leaves into nutrient-rich compost.

Events like these are more than just about beautifying our park, it’s about connecting with our local schools and community groups and reminding them how powerful community partnership can be for creating positive change. 

We are so grateful for PS 211 Elm Elementary for all their hard work and dedication to keeping our park clean. 

Interested in organizing similar events? Please complete our volunteer application or email the Stewardship Team directly, volunteer@allianceforfmcp.org, to learn more about how to keep our park greener.

FMCP’s Stewardship Team is supported by generous funding from Con Edison

Bat Box Bash! Event Recap

Just last week, we celebrated #BatAppreciationWeek with the FMCP Stewardship team and Urban Park rangers at our Bat Box Bash event! 

Our dedicated volunteers were able to enjoy a small nature walk along our Pat Dolan Trail while learning some interesting facts about bats. Did you know? Bats are natural pest controllers, they can eat up to 1,200 mosquitoes in one hour! The volunteers also came together to build beautiful bat box habitats to support their role in our ecosystem. 

Thank you to all the wonderful volunteers who came out to learn about bats and helped with our conservation efforts!

FMCP’s Stewardship Team is supported by generous funding from Con Edison

Have You Heard About FMCP'S Conservation Corps?

The Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park, in collaboration with NYC Parks and the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program, supports our park’s annual Conservation Corps program. The Alliance supplies all members with park-branded equipment like gardening belts, backpacks, SPF shirts, and gardening hats. NYC Parks and its Operations team here in FMCP administrate the program.

The Conservation Corps is a workforce development program that gives local youths a chance to learn valuable skills in environmental management, while getting paid for it! Growing each year, the 2024 cohort of the Conservation Corps grew to 17 members, up from 12 last year. Many members of our Conservation Corps come from the environmentally-minded John Bowne High School in Kew Gardens Hills.

One member of our 2024 cohort came back to the Conservation Corps for a second year. Returning to FMCP meant he could expand on his work experience from the previous summer, to start shadowing professional arborists and greenhouse gardeners while learning about all aspects of urban environmental stewardship.

Other participants are drawn to the program because of the opportunity to be outside. Rather than sitting behind a desk, Conservation Corps members can spend their summers getting daily exercise outdoors and keeping their community’s vital green spaces beautiful. One member of the Corps remarked that working hard out in the park was better than going to the gym!

A new partnership with the Ladders for Leaders program in the 2024 edition of the program, has allowed the Conservation Corps to bolster its educational curriculum and tailor it to the stewardship projects happening in the park.

Alumni of the program go on to study fields like Environmental Science, Agriculture Science, and more. Recent participants have been accepted to prestigious programs like Cornell University and the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Some participants are even second-generation Parkies!

Funding for the Conservation Corps is generously supported by a grant from the Association for a Better New York.

Please contact us at info@allianceforfmcp.org with any questions about the program.

Check out some pictures from this year’s Conservation Corps cohort:

Evening Under the Sphere 2024: Thank You from the AFMCP Team!

A huge, sincere thank you to everyone who attended or donated to Evening Under the Sphere 2024!

Through our sponsors, ticketholders, and donors we were able to raise over $187,000 that will support the Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park to continue our annual programming, volunteer opportunities, and maintenance operations in FMCP!

The event was a great success and provided an awesome venue, under our beloved Unisphere, for the Queens community to come together in celebration of our achievements.

In particular, we recognized the achievements of three outstanding contributors to our community:

Jennifer O’Sullivan, representing New York City FC

Jackson Koo, representing Con Edison

Christopher Caltieri, accepting the Claire Shulman Award for Public Service

These three honorees exemplify everything we love about Queens and the civic spirit we are so proud of here in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

Because of our intrepid friends at the Queens Night Market, Evening Under the Sphere features some of the best food in New York City. Here are the vendors who made this cornucopia of delicious eats happen:

Super Chori
Bstro
Epis by Steve
Buffalo Jump
Thaitai Eatery
Tacos El Guero
Eemas

DiLena's Dolcini
Treat Yourself Jerk
Mao's Bao
Daaku Indian BBQ
Hong Kong Street Food
Trini Treats Queens

This event would not be possible without the support of the Queens Night Market.

And a deep, heartfelt thank you to the sponsors of this year’s event.

Our sponsors are the reason we are able to keep ticket prices affordable and EUS a community-focused event. Outside of EUS, these sponsorships help fund an entire year of essential programming and maintenance operations in the park. Here is the full list of sponsors who have supported FMCP this year: 

Check out this slideshow featuring some of our favorite photos from this year’s event, captured by Steph Venegas of Natives.

See you in the park!

January 21st is Squirrel Appreciation Day

Squirrel on the court during US Open, Photo courtesy of Sports Illustrated

This blog post is written by Lee Hittner-Cunningham, the Alliance’s Natural Areas Stewardship Coordinator who is serving in partnership with Americorps.

Squirrels are a common sight in New York and across much of the country, in landscapes rural, urban, and suburban. We often forget to appreciate common things–we see them every day, and come to take them for granted. In the case of squirrels, some of us go beyond taking them for granted and simply dislike them. They dig up our gardens, chase beautiful birds off our bird feeders, and are often considered a pest. When I went home for the holidays, my father showed me the series of baffles he had set up around his bird feeders to discourage squirrels, and sighed about how they occasionally managed to outsmart this system and jump onto the feeders from nearby trees. While I could sympathize with his frustration, I also took a moment to look at our backyard, at the distance the squirrels must be leaping to overcome the baffles, and admire the physical ability and mental acuity of these animals. This Squirrel Appreciation Day, I invite you to join me in my admiration.

The long jumps–up to 10 times the length of their body–that the squirrels in my father’s backyard were making to get to his bird feeders is one of their impressive physical abilities. This, paired with the flexibility of their ankles, makes them adept at moving between trees. In watching squirrels overcome bird feeder baffles, we can see their dexterity in combination with their intelligence as they use creative approaches to overcome obstacles. This intelligence is also on display in the strategies squirrels use to protect their buried nuts. Squirrels have been observed pretending to bury nuts while keeping their food in their mouth to throw off other animals that might be watching them. Being clever and nimble has allowed these animals to survive and thrive in a variety of environments.

The presence of squirrels in cities is a fairly recent development, and one caused by human intervention. They were introduced to urban parks in the 1870s, and since then, their population has grown to make them the common city-dwellers they are today. This means that if you’re out and about in the city today–and especially if you’re in a park–you’re likely to see one of these scrappy New Yorkers. If you have a moment to spare, take a moment to watch them, considering the host of skills it takes for them to make it in the city.