For Hudson River Park’s Volunteer Program, Earth Day is a community affair. In the weeks surrounding this annual environmental celebration, teams of volunteers – both Corporate Member groups and our HRPK Green Team – join our horticulture staff to beautify the Park’s gardens in a celebration of shared stewardship that we look forward to every year.
This year, of course, is different. Though we can’t roll up our sleeves together in the Park, Earth Day offers an opportunity to celebrate the helping hands that are so vital to keeping our slice of this planet growing green.
Right now, all over Hudson River Park, tulips are flowering – an unusually early bloom and an especially beautiful one. For our team, the Park’s tulips don’t just symbolize the renewal of spring; they serve as a living symbol of our dedicated Park community.
In fall of 2019, our volunteers helped Park horticulturists plant more than 16,500 bulbs, including more than 9,000 tulips – 5,000 orange emperor tulips, 2,500 white flag tulips and 2,500 ‘Ile de France’ triumph tulips.
One third of these bulbs were planted near HRPK’s Pier 25 in Tribeca, when HRPK Green Team volunteers joined forces with our Friends with Benefits members and groups from the community at last year’s BULBTOBERfest celebration.
Hudson River Park’s Volunteer Program – powered by Presenting Sponsor, Citi; Supporting Sponsors Colgate-Palmolive and New York Cruise Lines; Snack Sponsors GoGo Aqueez and Liberty Coke; and our growing list of Corporate Members – experienced a record year in 2019. More than 2,150 volunteers donated 6,400 work hours at more than 70 volunteer events.
Seeing the Park’s beautiful blooms just showcases one of many ways our volunteers have made a meaningful difference in HRPK. We look forward to the day we can all meet in the Park and roll up our sleeves together again. But until then: happy Earth Day, and thank you to our volunteers for being such a vital part of our Park community.