Fourth Annual
ST. VARTAN PARK
EARTH CELEBRATION

Saturday, April 13, 2024
9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Breakfast • Neighborhood Cleanup • Arts and Crafts • Exercise • Games • Planting Project • Book Activities • Giveaways • Presentations • Special Guests • More

Enter on First Avenue
at 35th Street or 36th Street

The family-friendly St. Vartan Park Earth Celebration will be staged in and around the park.

An updated activities schedule, news and other information about the free-to-all gathering appear on this page.

The 2024 event co-hosts are St. Vartan Park Conservancy, New York City Council Member Keith Powers and Manhattan East Community Association.

Other event support comes from Alliance for Kips Bay, Books of Wonder, Charlotte Cafe, Climate Families NYC, El Rio Grande, Fairway, Hill and Bay, Home Depot, Jackson Hole, Lower East Side Ecology Center, P.S. 281 (The River School), Sanitation Foundation, Vanderbilt YMCA.

2024 St. Vartan Park Earth Celebration News

FREE 'SOLAR BEAR' EVENT TO SHINE AT PARK EARTH DAY

March 19, 2024 — St. Vartan Park Conservancy is proud to announce that young attendees of the fourth annual St. Vartan Park Earth Celebration on April 13 are in store for a free special interactive experience featuring the acclaimed new children's book 'Solar Bear.' 

Published today, the HarperCollins book written Beth Ferry tells a moving story about the impact of climate change on endangered species. 

The book's New York Times bestselling illustrator and Caldecott Medal winner Brendan Wenzel will be at the April 13 celebration to read and talk about the book, address the environment and teach kids how to draw. Wenzel regularly works with groups to protect and conserve wild places and creatures.

 Before Wenzel's presentation, the Conservancy in cooperation with New York's Books of Wonder will hand out free copies of the 40-page 'Solar Bear' to the book's target readers, ages 4 to 8. 

In a review of 'Solar Bear,' Booklist praises the work for "movingly illustrating the emptiness that would be felt on the planet without creatures like pangolins, rhinos, manatees, and sea turtles... aided considerably by the warm, stirring artwork, which invites children to reflect on the human causes of wildlife extinction and encourages them to work together for a better future." 

More information will be shared before the park's earth celebration with those who RSVP for the day at stvartanpark.org/earth.

DONATE SOLAR GLASSES SATURDAY FOR REUSE IN AUGUST

April 11, 2024 — Do you still have your solar eclipse glasses from Monday?

Thanks to an initiative by P.S. 281 (The River School) PTA, you can donate them on Saturday at the St. Vartan Park Earth Celebration, with the glasses to be shared with children in Latin America for when the kids experience the solar eclipse in August.

On Saturday, the glasses will be collected in a dedicated area at the steps park’s playground-adjacent park building.

P.S. 281 PTA TO HOST EDUCATIONAL RECYCLE RACES

April 3, 2024 —  Youth recycling relay races hosted by the P.S. 281 (The River School) PTA is the featured St. Vartan Park Earth Celebration activity on the park's athletic field.

The races teach kids how to sort different types of waste so the materials can be recycled or disposed of properly.

The fun competition was started in 2022 by The River School science teacher Adriana Romanzo (pictured in yellow cap at the inaugural race), the advisor for the school's environmentally conscious Green Team.

The Green Team has been part of the St. Vartan Park Conservancy family since the Conservancy's 2022 launch. The River School is located across the street from the St. Vartan Park garden.

PLANTING AREA EXPANDS INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCE

April 3, 2024 — This year, the St. Vartan Park Earth Celebration planting area at the park's playground (pictured n 2021) will expand its interactive experience for young participants.

Hosted by new event partner Vanderbilt YMCA of Midtown East, the offerings will include complimentary planting pots with materials to decorate them.

BRING YOUR RECYCLABLE EGG CARTONS

We also encourage event attendees to bring recyclable egg cartons to the April 13 event for participants to use as an alternate pot. Seeds and soil will be furnished for the take-home creations. 

ELECTED OFFICIALS TO DELIVER REMARKS IN GARDEN

April 11, 2024 — Several elected officials are set to participate in the April 13 St. Vartan Park Earth Celebration..

The officials will hear from event attendees and deliver environment-related remarks starting around 11:30 a.m. in the St. Vartan Park garden on First Avenue.

In addition to event co-host New York City Council Member Keith Powers, scheduled to speak are United States Congressman Jerry Nadler, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine (pictured at the 2023 St. Vartan Park Earth Celebration), New York State Senator Kristen Gonzalez, New York State Assembly Member Harvey Epstein and New York State Assembly Member Alex Bores.

NYC Parks’ new Manhattan Borough Commissioner Tricia Shimamura is also scheduled to deliver remarks..

CLIMATE GROUP JOINS CONSERVANCY EARTH FAMILY

March 19, 2024 — Another environmentally conscious and kid-friendly activity will grace the forth annual St. Vartan Park Earth Celebration, courtesy of new event partner Climate Families NYC.

Climate Families NYC will stage a fun letter-writing area for the nonprofit organization's Green and Healthy Schools Campaign, a call for city and state officials to provide more funding for green upgrades to schools.

Among the actions the campaign supports is citywide legislation reintroduced this year by New York City Council Member Keith Powers that would require new standards in schools and other city buildings "to monitor indoor air quality in real time so we know what we’re breathing." 

Powers, the Conservancy and Manhattan East Community Association (MECA) are the co-hosts of this year's earth day in and around St. Vartan Park.

Five months ago at a mass march against fossil fuels in Midtown Manhattan (above), MECA leadership marched with the Climate Families NYC contingent. 

COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT CHAMP POWERS TO CO-HOST

March 4, 2024 — City Council Member Keith Powers, a noted environmentalist whose district includes St. Vartan Park, will co-host this year’s St. Vartan Park Earth Celebration.

Powers (pictured in the St. Vartan Park garden in 2023, on left next to St. Vartan Park Conservancy founder Kevin O’Keefe) has been a champion of various environmental measures, including as the lead sponsor of legislation signed into law five months ago that will make New York City "the largest municipality in the nation to require its fleet to consist of zero emission vehicles."

Also last year, the council member served as co-sponsor of the Zero Waste Act that mandates citywide composting "to protect our environment and create a better, greener future for us all.”
 

Powers' environmental moves so far this year include reintroduction of legislation regarding air quality, to "require new reporting standards and start a pilot program to monitor indoor air quality in real time so we know what we’re breathing."

History of St. Vartan Park Earth Celebration

The decision to stage the first St. Vartan Park-anchored earth appreciation event on April 24, 2021, was in part an upshot of the year-old pandemic. A yearning for community members to be outside and to focus on the environment brought more than 200 individuals together for a cleanup of the neighborhood.

The River School (P.S. 281) on First Avenue directly across the street from the east side of the park has always been a key part of the event. Two parents at the elementary school in 2021 — Andrea Au Levitt (below, third from left in the St. Vartan Park garden at the 2023 earth event) and David Sall (second from right) — started recruiting others to help after Sall formulated a plan to start the event on the Saturday following Earth Day.

 The outreach was strengthened through the participation of the Green Team, the school's environment-focused group supervised by The River School science teacher Adriana Romanzo (far right) that would host select event activities. Other volunteer community leaders, including P.S. 116 parent leader Erica Wolf (fourth from left), Alliance for Kips Bay officer Sandra McKee (seventh from left) and future St. Vartan Park Conservancy officers Kevin O’Keefe (kneeling) and Michael-Ann Rowe (in yellow vest behind O’Keefe) — helped the event grow with various support sponsors.

The first two annual earth events secured the park’s playground and athletic field for activities. The event reached beyond neighborhood cleanup to include such activities as plantings, compost demonstrations, recycling, and environment-themed relay races

After O’Keefe led a successful campaign to open the park’s garden to the general public after years of closure, he launched the Conservancy in 2022 with an added commitment to expand the St. Vartan Park Earth Celebration to the garden. In 2023, the garden hosted event activities, including the start of an annual gathering that features a celebrated environment-focused children’s picture book. Complimentary copies of the book are given to young attendees with an interactive experience with the book’s author or illustrator.

The annual celebration has become known for its family-friendly appeal, with the political news outlet Politico among those that have highlighted children and their parents working together for the environment as part of news coverage of the event.

Several elected officials — including Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine (above, eleventh from left), New York State Senator Kristen Gonzalez (tenth from left), New York State Assembly Members Alex Bores (next to Gonzalez) and Harvey Epstein (next to Levine), and New York City Council Members Keith Powers (center right in blue sweater) and Carlina Rivera (below in jean jacket at the 2022 earth event) — have embraced the annual event for its community togetherness and to share plans for environmental advances.