Our annual Earth Day clean-up and BBQ was a great success on so many levels. Many thanks to all of the directors that helped organize and run this event and to all of the community members that came out to help and to enjoy the festivities.
The pots at the pond are beautifully planted, hopefully to Janice Gates Kelly's specifications! Many thanks to her for designing the pots and purchasing the plants, again!
About six refuse bags of debris was cleaned up from the median triangle and the "Old Edgemont" rock bed.
Several people put on rubber gloves and took a walk along the BRP path to collect several bags worth of trash. Resident Deanna Elstrom came up with this idea and even continued the collection from the train station up along Ardsley Road.
Many thanks to the brave kids that fished trash out of Crane's pond with makeshift fishing rods.
Many thanks to the entire McCormack clan that comes out every year to help with this event. They bring their grill and equipment and Tom cooks for everyone. Most importantly, they help remind everyone in attendance why Old Edgemont is such a great place to live.
As always, Director Mike Levine provided the fun and games for the kids. He is truly part camp counselor and part Santa Claus. The games are always different and always enjoyed. This year he had the participants racing to sweep sponges into dustpans and catching ping pong balls into plastic bibs they were wearing. Earth Day at Crane's Pond wouldn't be the same without Mike's fun, games and prizes!
Early in the event we joked that we should have brought chalk to draw in the crosswalk that Frank Kaiman has been so diligently fighting for on our behalf (for almost FIVE years now). It is too bad that we didn't because Paul Feiner stopped by towards the end of the event and many residents discussed the crosswalk with him and let him know, yet again, that WE WANT OUR CROSSWALK and WE WANT IT NOW!
Everyone enjoyed the BBQ food (especially the watermelon and the cookies!). Leftover food was donated to the Open Arms Shelter in White Plains. They were very appreciative.
Again, many thanks to the directors and their family members that spent time and energy on this event (Jon Guttenberg, Thom Hamill, Christine Howard, Janice Gates Kelly, Mike Levine, Erin Sullivan-Theisen, Beth Stephens, Travis Stratford and Deirdre Verne) and the the community members that came out to enjoy it with us. And thanks most of all to Lauren Ricci Warren, our fearless leader, for heading up the entire event, getting us all where we needed to be when we needed to be there, and for providing a fun filled day for everyone!