Alida Palma Memorial Fund for the Montefiore Park Neighborhood Assc.

The founder of the Montefiore Park Neighborhood Association (MPNA) recently passed.  We want to create a way for friends, family and neighbors who have worked and who knew MPNA's founder Alida Palma, to give to a fund for continued programs at Montefiore Park, especially as the park doubles in size after its renovations.  The family is asking that in lieu of flowers that friends donate for projects at Montefiore Park. Projects in Holiday Tree Lighting & Volunteer Appreciation Night, It's My Park Day events, Senior fitness classes, Movie Nights at MPNA and the formalizing of MPNA into a 501(c)3.

The Montefiore Park Neighborhood Association, MPNA, is a group of dedicated volunteers who seek to transform Montefiore Park from a mere landscaped corridor to a focal point of community life. MPNA has gone to demonstrate that a culturally diverse community such as Hamilton Heights, focused around a pocket park, can work together along with City agencies and community stakeholders to receive its fair share of public goods and services to enhance the quality of life for all.

First up in December 1st is MPNA's Holiday Tree Lighting Event inwhich we take time to not only celebrate the Holiday Season but also to thank all our volunteers throughout the year.  We imagine that this year we will also honor Alida Palma, MPNA's founder, at the ensueing dinner conducted usually at Broadway Housing Community, a longtime sponsor of all our effots at Montefiore Park.

Soon after the Holiday Season, MPNA will formalize itself into a 501(c)3 inorder to become the new park's official community partner with the City Parks Dept.

As we approach the Spring, we will begin our regular season of park programing among the tulips and daffodils planted in the previous fall.  The sesaon starts with IT's MY  PARK day events, which will continue throughout the year, followed by arts installations at the park, typically by local artists, continuing on with the Pop Up Piano installation and our Impromptu Series of concerts at the park.  New this year will be a Senior Fitness Class and evenign Movie Screenings.

After raising her family, Alida Palma had become preoccupied with the quality of life in Hamilton Heights after seeing the area decline precipitately into one of the City’s most underserved neighborhoods. In 1994 Ms. Alida Palma organized her fellow neighbors, local businesses and community leaders to discuss ways to improve conditions in the area.

From these meetings, Alida founded The Montefiore Park Neighborhood Association which has gone to demonstrate that a culturally diverse community such as Hamilton Heights, focused around a pocket park, can work together along with City agencies and community stakeholders to receive its fair share of public goods and services to enhance the quality of life for all.  Among it many initial goals was to revitalize Montefiore Park as a community oasis of pastoral and arboreal serenity that will transform this small triangular “pocket park” into an aesthetically and historically relevant, recreational area for the peaceable and quiet enjoyment of its Hamilton Heights residents, families, students, senior citizens and visitors.  Our ongoing goal is to clean up Montefiore Park, raise awareness and engage the community around and about the park as well as on environmental issues impacting our community. Our long term goal is to realize our vision for Montefiore Park and formalize our organizatio by bringing local residents, business, schools, city agencies, CBO's and other community stakeholders, into a dialogue with NYC Department of Transportation who has commenced a total redesign and renovation of the Montefiore Park and its adjacent street, Hamilton Place.