Pitch in for Yorktown’s I Love My Park Day

Yorktown seeks volunteers for a May 1 beautification effort at Blackberry Woods, Sparkle Lake and Junior Lake.

I Love My Park Day asks residents to spend a few hours of their weekend improving the community’s most valuable assets. The town’s parks department staff will give volunteers the necessary gear for the cleanup and beautification.

“We have amazing parks in our community, from playgrounds to walking trails and sports fields,” said Supervisor Matt Slater. “While our parks crew is dedicated to keeping these gems clean and attractive—after a long winter during which the parks got increased use due social distancing—they could use some help.”

Volunteers should call 914-245-4438 to register.

“The plethora of beautiful parks is a staple of Yorktown, but it’s imperative that we all do our part to help preserve their beauty,” said parks Superintendent James Martorano, Jr. “I Love My Park Day encompasses the spirit of leaving our favorite parks looking even better than how we found them.”

I Love My Park Day is Yorktown’s latest beautification effort. On Saturday Yorktown held the Battle of Yorktown, an Earth Day—related event that invited volunteers to don safety vests and grab garbage bags to collect roadside litter. Earlier this month work crews from the Yorktown Refuse & Recycling Department cleaned roadside litter at Wood and Hanover streets.

Yorktown also recently joined the National Wildlife Federation’s Mayors Monarch Pledge. The program commits communities to creating habitat for the monarch butterfly, whose eastern U.S. population has declined by 90 percent in recent years. Last year the Yorktown Garden Club and town officials planted a milkweed garden at Willow Park to create a monarch butterfly sanctuary.

“The Willow Park was a first step in helping the monarch butterfly survive a population crash, but we need to do more,” said Greg Brown, who helped develop the butterfly sanctuary at Willow Park. “We also must educate our neighbors so that they make butterfly-friendly choices when landscaping their yards and gardens.”