Local Non-Profits Win CitizensNYC! Grant
The Rockaway Civic Association is excited to announce that they are part of a local group of organizations awarded a 2024 Collaborative Impact Grant from CitizensNYC! The grant funding will help the organization work with three other local organizations towards implementation of the Shoreline Clean-up Stations project throughout the Rockaway peninsula.
This grant includes four organizations which will be collaborating on this single project: The Rockaway Civic Association led by Harold Paez, The Shoreline Stewards of Rockaway led by Hank Lewis, The Garden By The Bay led by Jackie Rogers and The Sonder School of Music led by Liz Hogg.
The Shoreline Clean-up Stations project seeks to engage the diverse neighborhoods of Rockaway in a sustained effort at cleaning up debris and trash accumulating along our beaches and bays. By using easily identifiable clean-up stations deployed in convenient locations, we hope to raise awareness of the massive amounts of garbage, including non-biodegradable plastics, which pose a significant threat to the natural habitats, animal life and plant life around us, habitats that provide a healthy living environment for us all.
The clean-up stations will provide for an easy, and pro-active approach, for any individual willing to grab a convenient bucket from the station and spend a few minutes making a positive impact on our environment. The stations themselves will be built from materials salvaged from wooden debris washed up on Jamaica Bay’s shorelines, while the collection buckets will be re-directed from landfill waste and repurposed from discarded materials.
Ultimately, the project hopes to develop a permanent sense of individual agency in environmental awareness, as we provide readily available stations showing how everyone can become an environmental steward for life. Through the simple act of pitching in to clean-up, and setting the example for neighbors, we can permanently transform our environment in a positive way.
Please be on the lookout for these clean-up stations as they begin to appear around Rockaway’s beaches and bays, at locations convenient for our NYC Parks Department partners. They will also be providing community service opportunities for students looking to make a positive impact on our environment during the Summer of 2025. More information will be provided in the new year.
Thanks to the CitizensNYC! organization for their generous contribution to the Rockaway community!
