FLO's Green Neighbor Family Day

This event will bring Staten Island families together for a day when children and adults can craft outdoors with natural materials, learn about local trees and birds on a short Nature Walk, and learn about Frederick Law Olmsted and his farmhouse.  

We can picture families strolling through the options of crafting at tables in the park. They can choose to do any or all of the crafts. Do they want to make a laminated bookmark with leaves that will be perfect for summer reading? Perhaps they are thinking about our local birds, so they would like to make a bird feeder to hang on a tree near their home. While they are creating their bird feeder they can learn about birds from a poster at the Create-a-Bird Feeder station. Do they want to make a terrarium with a mini succulent?  The artists among our guests will love to make leaf prints and learn about how to identify trees from their leaves. They will surely be surprised to see an Osage orange that grows on the grounds of the Olmsted-Beil house and create a craft with its slices! 

Perhaps they want to take a Nature Walk led by the Urban Park Rangers. The tent will include a station to learn about the Olmsted-Beil House and the interesting residents that lived there from 1685 to 2006. We can smell the coffee and lemonade at the refreshment stand when adults and children want to quench their thirst and grab a cookie.  The tent will also have chairs arranged in small groups for resting and conversing after crafting and walking.  We can picture children, parents and grandparents sharing their creations with music playing in the background in the tent. 

This is the Friends of Olmsted-beil House's project! You can help to make it a reality with a donation! Thank you so much. 

JULY/AUGUST 2020 

• Create posters for the Create-a-Bird-Feeder station and the Leaf-Printing station.
• Design advertisements for all media
• Create samples for the craft projects

STARTING IN MARCH 2021

• Advertise through social media and website
• Purchase print ads in local paper, printed flyers and signage
• Purchase tent, tables, chairs, generator, coffee maker, tea maker, craft supplies
• Spread the word to local schools

JUNE 2021

• Purchase refreshments and paper goods
• Set up signage, tent, tables, chairs, refreshments by Friends of Olmsted-Beil House members

Friends of Olmsted Beil House are doing this project to gather families together to learn about the Olmsted-Beil House Park including the house that Frederick Law Olmsted lived in when his professional life journey led him to become the father of landscape architecture. Growth in the number of immigrants has driven population growth on Staten Island since 2000. The number of immigrants increased by 57 percent between 2000 and 2017 (five times faster than the citywide growth rate), reaching 114,400 residents. The Staten Island community is growing and is in need of programming for all families including our newer families. We hope that FLO's Green Neighbor Family Day will help families to experience the physical, mental and social health benefits of visiting green spaces, just as young Frederick was influenced by his father's love of natural scenery during horseback rides touring the countryside.  What better way to inspire families than with this nature-inspired program to create generations of environmentally aware people who will appreciate the green spaces around them, and protect them for future generations.

As Frederick Law Olmsted had written in 1893, "The root of all my good work is an early respect for, regard and enjoyment of scenery… and extraordinary opportunities for cultivating susceptibility to the power of scenery."