New Yorkers for Parks launched our youth efforts in 2007. Every fall, New Yorkers for Parks partners with schools and provides them with daffodil bulbs, corporate volunteers, trowels and gloves to engage them in the beautification of their neighborhood parks and open spaces. New Yorkers for Parks’ youth plantings have reached eleven youth organizations or schools to plant nearly 10,000 bulbs in their communities.

Contact New Yorkers for Parks if you are interested in bringing the Daffodil Project to your school or youth organization.

As we begin to prepare for the 2010 planting season with youth from around the city, we would like to share a Daffodil Project story from PS 66 in Queens.

PS 66 Q, The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, is a small neighborhood school providing education for 475 students from Pre-K-5 in the Richmond Hill-Woodhaven community. Our national, state, and New York City land marked building has been a stalwart in this area of Queens for 112 years. Under the leadership of Principal Phyllis Leinwand, the students, in an effort to revitalize their school grounds and community, planted 500 daffodil bulbs. The students were explained the purpose of the planting and that the daffodils represented a memorial to the victims of 9/11.

After several science lessons on plants and their needs taught by Mrs. O’Gara and Mrs. Kraljic, every child at PS 66 Queens planted a daffodil bulb in the schoolyard under the supervision of teachers Roseann Amore, Theresa DiLiberto and Cassandra Strippoli. Peat moss and fertilizer were generously donated to the school by Verdino Garden Center in South Ozone Park. Special thanks to parent volunteers, Mr. Darrin Lugaro for providing the time and “muscle” in tilling the earth and Mrs. Georgia Galane for helping with the planting.

The daffodils were planted along the perimeter of the front yard in a 2 foot wide swath. As the winter came to a conclusion, the children eagerly searched the ground for signs of sprouts. Finally, in early March the students began to see signs of spring. The children were ecstatic to see green shoots breaking through the hard ground. How excited they all were upon returning from spring vacation to see the flowers in glorious bloom!

If you have a Daffodil Project story you would like to share, please contact Meredith Ledlie, Outreach Coordinator, at 212-838-9410 ext 313 or