Sponsored Post - You're Invited To Celebrate Roosevelt Island City Of Forest Day Saturday October 14 At Lighthouse Park - Raise Awareness Of Urban Forest Importance, Enrich The Soil With Compost From Resident Food Scrap Collection, Enjoy Ecological Theme Dance Performance And More Family Friendly Activities

Roosevelt Island resident and iDig2Learn founder Christina Delfico reports: 

In an effort to raise awareness of the importance of the urban forest, and the essential role residents play in caring for the “lungs” of our city, while having fun doing so, three organizations – iDig2Learn, Main Street Theatre and Dance Alliance (MSTDA) and NYC Health + Hospitals/Coler (Coler Hospital) – are collaborating to host City of Forest Day on Roosevelt Island.

This second annual event will be an enriching and inclusive celebration of nature outdoors. The day includes a series of four activities, supporting awareness of trees’ vital role in our local environment – they eat carbon dioxide and release oxygen, provide shelter for birds and butterflies and stabilize the land capturing rain during storm events, which reduces flooding. 

Roosevelt Island’s City of Forest Day details include:

WHAT: City of Forest Day

WHEN: Saturday, October 14 – 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.:

11:00 a.m. – join Gil Lopez of Big Reuse to learn about tree stewardship and participate in a community compost mulching activity to blanket existing trees and enrich the soil (funded by City Council Member Julie Menin) utilizing a truckload full of compost derived from the weekly resident food scrap collection. As such, feeding the trees will be a direct result of the Haki Compost Collective’s efforts – both those who volunteer supporting Big Reuse’s weekly collection and the hundreds of residents who drop off their food scraps.

12:30 p.m. – decorate hats using reclaimed paints with RIVAA Gallery featured artist George Krassas and residents from Coler Hospital (note, all materials will be provided)

2:00 p.m. – enjoy a 45-minute performance by Jody Sperling and Time Lapse Dance ensemble whose work “aims to investigate the relationship of the moving body to the ecologies we inhabit through performance, media, education and activism.” The company will perform two ecologically-themed works exploring the connections between humans and their habitat: "Plastic Harvest," exploring plastic proliferation; and, "Arbor," dwelling on the kinship between trees and humans.

3:00 p.m. – connect with the local teen-led Plogging Club to learn more about this invigorating and healthy way to keep our community clean

WHERE: Roosevelt Island Lighthouse Park, 910 Main St, New York, NY 10044 (the northernmost tip of the island). Please note that in case of pouring rain, the dance performance and art activity will take place indoors at the Good Shepherd Church Community Center on Roosevelt Island, 543 Main Street, New York, New York, 10044 (the dance performance will be upstairs and the art activity downstairs). For up to the minute updates on these events, please follow iDig2Learn on Instagram.

This celebration on Roosevelt Island is just one of over 70 taking place throughout New York City on October 14 to highlight the vital need to better protect, maintain, and expand the New York City urban forest to benefit all New Yorkers. 

iDig2Learn is a part of Forest for All NYC (FFANYC), a diverse coalition of over 115 organizations across business, nonprofit, conservation, and environmental justice sectors that is working to expand the tree canopy of the urban forest in New York City to 30% by 2035. FFANYC in partnership with the Parks and Open Space Partners – NYC Coalition and NYC Parks is presenting this citywide.

As we celebrate City of Forest Day, iDig2Learn is thrilled to join with Coler Hospital and Main Street Theatre and Dance Alliance to host this day on Roosevelt Island. Island residents and visitors alike treasure the island’s greenspace. No matter how you arrive – by ferry, subway, tram, bike, bus or foot – you cannot miss the abundance of trees on the island, which have been thoughtfully managed by the RIOC Grounds Team and partners Trees New York. Since 2022, with the help of these outstanding local partners, we have added 100 new baby trees, growing the urban forest by focusing on species that are known to support New York City’s habitat.

I am deeply thankful to our partners that support iDig2Learn’s ongoing efforts and programs, including Green Roosevelt Island Neighbors (GRIN), Girl Scouts, Roosevelt Island Garden Club and Coach Scot's baseball players. I invite everyone – our existing supporters and those new to our work – to join us for this joyful City of Forest Day to explore, celebrate and get to know our trees and what they do for us so that we can do for them. Each of the day’s activities has been designed to inspire us to do more to help our trees thrive.