Volunteer Cleanups Return To MacDonald Park In Forest Hills

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — The Friends of MacDonald Park will go back to its roots Saturday when it hosts its first cleanup event since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, an effort to combat the results of months of neglect.

The "Spruce Up" will run from 10 a.m. to noon, according to a Facebook post. Volunteers will be assigned a section of the park to tend, in accordance with social distancing guidelines.

The Friends of MacDonald Park will provide tools and work gloves, but volunteers are encouraged to bring their own supplies, especially rakes and brooms.

Pandemic-related restrictions prompted the volunteer group to stop its weekly waterings and trimmings in the spring. The group's president, Stephen Melnick, previously told Patch that he presumed the city's parks department would step in to keep the park in good shape.

But a $84 million budget cut crippled the agency and forced it to nix 1,700 jobs in seasonal maintenance and operations. As a result, the condition of many city parks — already seeing even more use during the pandemic — has suffered.

MacDonald Park is still cleaned daily, but landscaping is only done "as able," according to a parks department spokesperson.