By Lisa Kava
Central Park Needs You!
The Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit organization that takes care of Central Park, is actively recruiting new volunteers to work in person in the park for the first time in two years.
The number of volunteers with the Conservancy has greatly fallen since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the park is being used more than ever, Andrea Buteau, vice president for visitor experience, who oversees the volunteer program, told West Side Rag.
“During the pandemic, Central Park has been a real refuge for New Yorkers, but while the Park was and still is getting used more, we have had fewer volunteers to help. We need more hands to help ensure we have a glorious spring.”
Volunteers who would like to work on a regular basis can help in a variety of ways. Assistants to groundskeepers are needed to engage in hands on activities such as raking, weeding, and laying mulch. Greeters are needed to work in the park’s kiosks, to provide visitors with information about the park and answer questions.
For those who would like to volunteer, but are not able to commit to a regular schedule, one-time opportunities such as painting benches, raking leaves, and pulling up weeds are other ways to get involved. There are also weekend volunteer events where families may work together on a landscape project. Volunteer shifts typically range from two to three hours.
“We are really flexible and grateful to all the New Yorkers who pitch in to make Central Park a welcoming and inspiring place for all New Yorkers. There will surely be opportunities to work in familiar west side landscapes that are so beloved,” Buteau remarked.
Central Park, the largest green space in Manhattan, spans 843 acres according to the Conservancy, and welcomes 42 million visitors annually. The Central Park Conservancy has over 300 employees who work year-round on all aspects of caring for the park.
“The Conservancy’s staff of experts work directly with the volunteers, giving guidance and direction… they are happy to help first-time volunteers. What you get is a team of New Yorkers who enjoy the fresh air while giving back to the park they love,” Buteau told the Rag.
If you are interested in volunteering for The Central Park Conservancy this spring, you can learn more at www.centralparknyc.org/volunteer Potential volunteers should send an email to volunteer@centralparknyc.org.
Thank your, WSR, for publishing this! I’m going to email the park to volunteer and see if my child can volunteer as well. It is a great opportunity for all of us and the children in particular to get involved.
Can I have the job to tell dog owners to leash their pets,not climb over fenced in areas with their pets to ‘create’ their own dog runs and that our legal, ruled based society is not a la carte? I’d probably need a suit of armor..
I might compete with you for that job! There really needs to be some enforcement against rude dog owners that think the rules don’t apply to them. (And when they are reminded of the rules many get nasty.)
Thanks so much for sharing this info. So many different opportunities to volunteer for! Appreciate the posting.
i am available to work on a steady schedule one day a week….happy to be a greeter, as i am familiar with the park. will work in kiosk or any other position available.
ready to start when you need me.
lookjing forward to becoming a member of the central park volunteer team.
Hi Mitchell,
Great! You can send an email to volunteer@centralparknyc.org to let them know you would like to volunteer. Enjoy!
New York should employ homeless, criminals, inmates to clean up the city.
Hmmm#1…think of how this would look to the many, many tourists: the sight of:
1. prisoners (in orange? After all, it IS, as that TV series says, “The New Black”) being supervised by other guys in uniform, perhaps holding weapons (Southern chain gang style); and
2. tattered-and-tired homeless guys muttering to themselves as they rake leaves.
Hmmm#2…Then again, it could be a new must-see, a real tourist draw!
Fellow volunteer of Central Park here…just wanted to say how much of a bright spot volunteering in the park has been in my life. I started last spring, and it has brought more joy to my life than I could have imagined or could express. So many interesting people that volunteer, kind and knowledgeable staff, and it gets me out of my apartment for a few hours (3 hr shifts). I highly recommend joining in on the fun if you’re on the fence! 🙂
To tell the truth, I was so inspired by this article and by its message because I think that it is such a good deed to recruit volunteers and be a volunteer. Of course, it is really sad that the number of volunteers with the Conservancy has greatly fallen since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is conditioned by the current difficult situation in that period and I really hope that now the number of volunteers will significantly increase because there are a lot of concern people in our world. There are such a wide range of duties that are necessary to perform and I really hope that the quantity of the labour force will be enough. Also, it is truly cool that The Central Park Conservancy provides you with flexible conditions and that there are different opportunities to help. I think that, primarily, you do yourself the favor because by taking care of the park you improve the state of the environment in which you stay.