L to R: Longtime 22nd St. residents Robert Edgar and Lynn Weinstein, along with W. 400 Block Assoc. president Mary Swartz, were among those who answered the call to spruce up Clement Clarke Moore Park’s fence.
BY SCOTT STIFFLER | If Tom Sawyer had just sent out an email appealing to everybody’s sense of citizenship, Aunt Polly’s fence would have been spruced up without the need for such elaborate deception. Sometimes, you get the desired results by just asking politely — a strategy employed to great success by the West 400 Block Association. Their electronic missive, which asked for help making improvements to West 22nd Street & 10th Avenue’s Clement Clarke Moore Park, proved that good neighbors make great painters.
The idea started to gel in late August, when association members noticed some FIT student volunteers scraping and painting the 10th Avenue side of the park’s fence. By Labor Day weekend, a group of likeminded locals were busy continuing the work — which inspired a curious Mike Farrah (who takes his kids to the park) to recruit some PS11 parents. That, in turn, motivated almost a dozen people to spend the still summer-like afternoon of September 15 applying broad brush strokes to popular destination’s outer perimeter.
Block Association spokesperson Allen Oster noted that it will take two more sessions to finish the project — a task that should be completed before winter sets in. Volunteers are still welcome — and needed.
But after they’ve cleared the fence, so to speak, what other hurdles are left? Although there are “no new plans at this time” for additional beautification projects, Oster says, “Folks are free to email me if they have any ideas. I’d like to see the park take on some more community activities that involve the kids in some way.”
You can contact Oster with suggestions, or get involved in phases III and IV of the great fence paint project, by emailing him at aoster@earthlink.net.
