NYC in Brief, May 26

P.S. 33 Kids Celebrate Opening of $1 Million Playground

P.S. 33 students celebrated the opening of a new community playground that they had helped design in Queens Village on Wednesday morning. The new playground was created in partnership with Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s PlaNYC initiative. The Trust for Public Land (TPL), along with a design team of students, teachers, parents, and community members, led the transformation of the P.S. 33 schoolyard. The playground will be available to the school’s 1,000 students and the families from the surrounding community. “A select group of second- and third-grade students had a vision and were given the opportunity to share it in their design of this wonderful playground,” said P.S. 33 Principal Erich Wagner. The playground, funded in part by MetLife Foundation and The Starr Foundation, features a turf field and running track, basketball practice hoops, outdoor classroom amphitheater and garden, play equipment, a web climber, benches, game tables, and trees. The student designers wanted to teach their community “the delicate balance nature plays on our planet,” explained Wagner. Queens Village boasts a diverse community with residents from 52 different countries of origin. David Bragdon, director of the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, said, “Through the Schoolyards to Playgrounds program, which has to date converted 165 underutilized sites into vibrant, community playgrounds, we are working to achieve the PlaNYC goal of ensuring [that] all New Yorkers live within a 10-minute walk of a park.”

Dining in the Dark Ball Supports Blindness Research

 

Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB) hosted The Fashion Ball: Dining in the Dark Wednesday evening. The fundraising event celebrated fashion visionaries who have supported the foundation’s mission to encourage research that leads to the prevention, treatment, and cure for people affected by the vast spectrum of retinal degenerative diseases. LF USA President Rick Darling and fashion executive Jill Granoff were the honorees of the evening. The event provided a rare and unique sensory experience for the guests, taking them on a journey of taste, smell, sound, and touch—all in the dark. “Dining in the Dark truly heightens awareness about the challenges visually impaired individuals experience every day,” said FFB CEO Bill Schmidt. “We’re thrilled to recognize the contributions of these fashion industry leaders as we come together to support promising research to ensure brighter futures for people living in darkness.” All of the servers at the ball were visually impaired and trained specifically for the dinner to use a system of ropes and stanchions to help the guests navigate through the experience. In its 40-year history, the FFB has raised more than $425 million as the leading nonprofit funder of retinal research.

Officials Rally to Save Engine Co. 220

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Assemblyman Jim Brennan and other officials attended a rally to oppose closure of Engine Co. 220 in Brooklyn’s Park Slope on Wednesday. Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy, Uniformed Fire Officers President Al Hagan, and firefighters from Engine 220 were also in attendance. The rally took place eight years to the day since six firehouses— four of them in Brooklyn—were closed in 2003. Engine 220 is one of 20 fire companies in the city, and one of eight in Brooklyn, proposed for closure in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s current budget plan. “Providing public safety is the most basic responsibility of government, and we’ll fight alongside neighborhoods across the city to keep these companies in action,” said de Blasio. “Eliminating Engine 220 increases the response time in the event of fires and emergencies. It increases the risk to community residents,” added Brennan. First-grade students from the nearby P.S. 107, who have been studying the importance of firehouses to the community, also joined the rally. “I am flabbergasted that eight engine and ladder companies—nearly half of the 20 proposed closures citywide—are in Brooklyn,” said Markowitz.“If there is any serious thought being given to closing these houses, it needs to be extinguished like a three-alarm fire.”