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project leader
Sara S
location
2 Hylan Boulevard
Staten Island (Shore Acres)
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the project

The project will restore the Victorian garden at the Alice Austen Park through an educational fundraising event for families to come to the park for a lecture and environmental craft activity taking place on Sept 16th, 2012.  We will remove the tree stumps of the fallen trees left from the storms over the years.  The tree stumps are an eye sore for the Alice Austen Park and dangerous for kids, senior citizens and pets.  We will increase the beauty of the park by creating a small garden in the spots of the stumps.

the steps

-Ask our local vendors for donations or sponsor to our project event for the community. We would need plants for our proposed plant sale. Have snacks and baked goods prepared for the attendees to purchase.

-Hire a speaker for our event to speak about plants and planting your own gardens.  The speaker will present a 30-45 minute presentation relating to Alice Austen’s gardens and Austen photos will be shown of her garden. Show attendees how and where the tree stumps will be removed and where we plan to plant the garden.

-Craft / Planting activity for children, with a plant to take home!

-After stump removal, have a follow up Volunteer event (attendees are welcome to participate) to demonstrate and create the actual gardens within the spots of the fallen trees with ongoing participation of maintaining those areas.

why we're doing it

The Alice Austen House Museum promotes public awareness and scholarly study of the life, work, and times of Alice Austen (1866 – 1952). Austen was one of America’s earliest and most prolific female photographers.  In the early 1960s a group of concerned citizens joined together with the purpose of saving Austen’s family home, Clear Comfort.  Located within a luscious park overlooking the New York Narrows, it has a stunning panoramic view of lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Verrazano Bridge.  By the end of the decade the group had succeeded and the House was declared a National Historic Landmark.  In 1985 it opened to the public.

Over the years the Alice Austen Park has been damaged from several storms. We would like to restore our Park back to the Victorian garden it once was. We hope to raise funds to support the removal of the fallen tree stumps and create gardens in those spaces. From the removal of these stumps we hope it will be a more inviting site for visitors to participate in more activities at the museum.

Conversation

05/02/2012 - 11:14am aliceausten project leader

Dave, thanks for the idea but our mission at the Alice Austen House Museum is to educate the public and further Alice Austen's name and life's work. So to preserve the Victorian gardens that Alice Austen once had is a part of that, having wood sculptures in the park doesn't really fit with the mid-1800's garden landscape. Another issue we are dealing with is that kids are climbing on the stumps and that's dangerous. We don't have a large staff here to police that. The unique sculptures that you speak of may pose the same problem. There are three large stumps to remove. We have done all we can with Chainsaws but once we get close to the dirt the chainsaws can get ruined. Also, if you don't want to donate to this fund raiser, please vote for us on www.partnersinpreservation.com to receive a grant to improve the historic house. Also, we invite you to come to the house and look at our proposed plans. It's a fantastic location and well worth the trip!

budget

Educator staff (to speak about how to plant your own garden): $100, Marketing (banners and signage for display of our sponsors): $300, Stump removal: $1200, Administrative and staff expense: $300, Estimated costs: $1900 +$35 ioby fee + 3% Credit card processing fee ($57) =Total to fundraise: $1,992

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