Park Moms Receive Charity Boost From Boro Recycling

Last week Greenpoint’s Boro Recycling presented a $3,400 check to the Park Moms, a neighborhood organization that seeks to improve conditions for family-oriented activities in local parks and public spaces. The donation will help the group fund its McCarren Park Live! Music series, and marks yet another instance of Boro Recycling’s generosity and commitment toward local causes.

Assemblyman Joe Lentol was on hand to present the donation to the parks-advocacy group. He was joined by the President of Boro Recycling, Mike Luzzi, MTL’s President, Mark Calem, Attorney Steven Cohn, and Nick Stefanizzi, Boro Recycling’s Vice President of Planning, Promotion and Development.

Boro’s CEO Joe Luzzi bought gifts for an annual raffle and donated the proceeds to the Park Moms. Last year the donation was $1,800, and Stefanizzi couldn’t have been more pleased about the increased donation capacity in 2009. “My wife and I were both born here [in Greenpoint]. So it’s nice to be working here, and helping the community,” he said.

The Park Moms’ current team consists of five local members: Katharine Naplatarski, Susan Albrecht, Robin Hagert, Jesse Leaman and Nancy Kearin. For the past 12 years the group has made efforts to enrich public spaces and provide safe activities for the families in the community. The Park Moms act as a non-hierarchical organization, with no officers or positions. “We just work together to get things done,” explained Naplatarski.

She also cited appreciation for the support that the Park Moms receive from Assemblyman Lentol, Council Member David Yassky, OSA, The Parks Department, City Parks Foundation and neighborhood contributors such as Boro Recycling and CitiStorage.

This grassroots effort began simply as a group of mothers who would sit in the park and discuss how to improve things, and over the years many their goals have been realized. Park Mom Nancy Kearin discussed some past successes on Friday, including their initial battle against the Asian Longhorned Beetle and the damage it was doing to trees in Greenpoint in 1997.

The Park Moms have also established fountains in the playground area of McCarren Park, helped to plant flowers and trees, built fences around the basketball courts at the playground and played a key role in supporting the It’s My Park Days at McCarren Park.

The plan for the $3,400 donation is to use the money primarily toward the Park Moms’ music series. The McCarren Park Live! concerts for kids have happened for the past ten springs or so, providing educational and interactive music for community children and area elementary students. This year the Park Moms are planning three evenings of music at McCarren Park in June.

“Thank you very much,” Park Mom Katie Naplatarski commented upon receiving the check on Friday. “We wouldn’t have the concerts without this funding.”

“This enables us to keep going,” Naplatarski added.