Thanks to the hundreds of people who turned out for Newton Serves today. If you volunteered today, tell us where you were, what you did and about how many people worked on that project.
Photo from @MayotWarren ‘s Twitter feed
Crazy Divers: Men be like...
drivers man be like
I could only do a couple hours because I had to work today, but I spent them at Dolan Pond Conservation Area, where Ted Kuklinski led a group pulling the invasive plants, garlic mustard and Japanese knotweed. I put some pictures on the NewtonServes Facebook page. You can also search online for pictures to see what they look like. If you have any in your yard, or see it in public places, you should pull it an dispose in trash, not yard waste.
There will be more weed pulls through the summer you can find out about through Newton Conservators. It’s actually quite mentally relaxing to focus on one plant and pull all of it you see, and it does make a difference. Each garlic mustard plant pulled before it goes to seed keeps thousands more seeds scattering.
Jim Lerner put together a great crew at the Upper Fall Greenway today, including an ace troop of Boy Scouts from Waban (sorry, I forget the troop number). As of this afternoon, for the first time in years, you can now walk from the river to National Lumber – i.e. the full length of the future Upper Falls Greenway.
Ann Dorfman organized the annual “Wake up Wellington Park” event. A well run project, as usual.
Robert Nagle and crew (initially just me, but later up to a dozen hard working Union Church members & others) chopped, sawed, clipped and trimmed, then dragged brush (and whole trees) to the curb for the Newton brush truck (five loads!), raked & sorted the trash (including a full bag of recyclable bottles and cans) from the compostables, filled 20+ bags of leaves, and still left two large piles of leaves (not counting one picked up by the City dump truck–thanks to all thos guys for helping!). We then mulched…Where, you ask? At two traffic islands at the Waban Ave/Collins/Beacon intersection. Go look. You probably never knew there was a dogwood and azalea there.
Just under 500 people have looked at this blog between the time I’ve posted this and Sunday evening. But only four people have admitted to having participated in Newton Serves. Is everyone else shy or modest?
Come on good deed doers, we won’t bite.
I can think of four regular bloggers that I saw at the Upper Falls Greenway cleanup yesterday and I don’t mind publicly out’ing them for their good work – Anil, Sean, Schlock and Marie. You’ve been exposed!!
Oops, did it again. Last post was from Jerry Reilly not Marie Jackson
I hesitate to characterize my minor contribution to the project “good work,” but I did make a courtesy appearance, exploit my children’s labor, and grab a slice of cold pizza.
I am physically unable to do this work and am very grateful to all of you who did. Thank you all for making Newton a better place to live!
Sean – you’re definitely underselling your contribution. You went way beyond the line of duty. As far as I know you were the only one of the 50 volunteers who contributed a self inflicted near-concussion to the effort. For entertainment value, you were the number one contributor.
The back story …
I was pulling down some woody vine that had climbed up a tree. (Not sure how necessary to the clean up effort, but there are few activities as viscerally satisfying.) From down the rails, Jerry looked over and said, “Watch out, Sean. That thing’s going to come down and hit you on the head.”
Two yanks later, the thick vine comes flying down about 30 feet and hits me square on the noggin. Jerry, it should be noted, continued working without pause, neither enjoying the proof of his predictive abilities nor worrying about my condition.
For those of you who might care more than Jerry, I’m fine. Really.
I’m very disappointed in Jerry. Not as much for not checking on Sean but for not posting any pictures.
I was going to ask him to do it again for the photo … but as I saw him rubbing his head, I thought it might not be wise.
I was at Burr School in Auburndale, with at least 50 or so parents and kids – wood chips were spread on the playground, mulch in the gardens, weeds pulled, trees pruned, vines yanked (no concussions!) I think there was also some painting going on inside.
We started out at the no-mans-land at the westbound on-ramp from Centre Street to Rt 9 with new plantings and then moved on to mulching Newton Centre. My son is already trying to think up new projects for next year. I on the other hand am double fisting Advil.
By the way, saw a lot of people in both locations who lurk or post here. They may also be wrapped in heating pads at the moment.