As Grab Your Group and Go takes baby steps towards the business of carefully researching shows and connecting calendar dates to them, negotiating prices and opening our box office with the largest virtual red ribbon I can find; I must acknowledge the outsize gratitude and love I have for Central Park being my pandemic partner. Thank you Central Park for being such an easy and grand stage to love in the absence of emoting for Broadway. If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.
The 843 acres that is the heart of NYC is packed with a fascinating history, ethics, and ethos. The respect I have for that park and ALL THAT IT TAKES to manage, care for, and keep it so perfect is SKY HIGH, even, other worldly. Many, many of us in this group got to celebrate the park last May. We wore hats. While this certain chapeau celebration (aka FLO Luncheon) is always a lovely and fun time, it is vital in raising much needed funds for the ongoing care of what is the greatest work of art in all of New York City, possibly the world.
I always knew I loved the park. I loved it for making nature so easily accessible (for humans who live near it and the furry and feathered animals that live in it). I loved it for being an oasis of an escape right in the middle of the best city in the world. But I didn’t understand it’s absolute brilliance until engaging in a Covid enforced self taught master class on it’s riveting history, fascinating creation, and remarkable resurrection in the 80’s. For a three minute version of what I have learned click here. Dare you to watch it and not want to toss some dollars towards the Central Park Conservancy no matter where you are in the world. Pay close attention when the music turns ominous…a cautionary tale of what we NEVER want to see happen again.
I acknowledge that many, many, many in this group of lovely and generous people are long time supporters of this precious park. It appears there is a ridiculously high correlation between loving theater and loving Central Park. BUT if Central Park is not among the charities you support – if you USE it and you LOVE it I encourage you to join US in support of it.
Click here to add your dollars to this mission critical cause. The park needs us now more than ever as it is facing its FIRST budget shortfall in over 40 years due to the pandemic.
There are also a variety of ways to be more closely connected to the park and several ways to make your mark (ask me about The Pavers on The Gilder Run!). For information on all of the special membership groups click here.
As we were so clearly reminded this year Central Park, like Broadway, is paramount to our collective existence as humans in NYC. Before we get back to buying tickets to Broadway, let’s get busy supporting art in the form of a park that is so central to our lives: The Central Park. THANK YOU! We need you to stay you. To do so, the park needs US.
When I was a teenager in the 60s, I went to school on 93rd and CPW and lived on 65th near 3rd. 60+ years ago the Park was a mostly scary place, but there were pockets of beauty and lovely places to sit in solitude and read a book and stall going home. I walked home through the Park the day Kennedy was assassinated and was hugged by every person I saw. The Park is in my blood and I have donated to it for decades. ??
The Park is a most excellent thing to have coursing through your blood Phyllis. Thank you for sharing those memories of young Phyllis tucking into a quiet spot with a book. You will have to show me your secret spots one day soon. xo