About Us
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The
Enchanted Garden was inaugurated in 1995. When students in the JFK Environmental
Club were looking for a good community service project, they realized
they need look no further than the vacant lot across the street from
the school. Under the leadership of students like Tomasina Harper, John
Nieves, David Mercado, Marcos Santiago, and teachers Tony Thoman and
Sharon Douglas, plans were hatched to thorougly clean out a small corner
of this lot that was most visible to the school community. |
One thing
led to another. By the spring of 1996, as students were filling up garbage bag
after garbage bag, they realized that this was a pretty interesting piece of
real estate. Some cattails emerged under the refrigators, plastic, and old tires.
Milkweed was sending up it's green shoots. Birds beyond the usual sparrows were
flitting about. This was not your usual vacant lot.
Ideas were
cast about as to what could be done to improve this space. Before we knew it,
plans were drawn to up to create a small garden. With the help of local
politicians, our community board, and three petititions sent to our mayor, Rudolph
Guiliani, we won approval to build this garden.
What has
since been created is a truly stunning garden. Aside from the fact that it is
truly beautiful, this is a little slice of the natural world that has been carved
out of what once was a bleak vacant lot. Most significant of all is that this
garden was conceived of, planned by, built by, and is currently maintained by
students from Kennedy High School. Aside from direction and support provided
by the faculty at Kennedy, it is a student run enterprise. These Bronxites have
become stewards of a park that is their own Yellowstone in the urban landscape
of NYC.
Now, many years later,
we are taking stock of what we have built. Within this link, we have set up
a map drawn up Rayal Johnson (class of '99, and now a student at M.I.T.), and
use this as a way of highlighting the various facets of our garden, and the
wealth of habitats and opportunities for observing nature.
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