Armies of borough residents plan to invade parks and playgrounds this Saturday.
But they will face no emergency and no enemy other than garbage and decay. And instead of weapons, these armies will wield brooms, brushes, shovels and Hefty bags. Their mission: to sweep, rake, paint and pick up until the open spaces are pristine.
Their efforts will be part of a citywide Green-Up Day held by the Department of Parks and Recreation that comes one week after Earth Day.
Valerie Davis O'Neal, who coordinates volunteer programs for the department's borough office, estimates at least 600 people will show up at different green-ups throughout the borough.
"We need more people to come out and get involved," O'Neal said. "Like St. Mary's is a big park, but we only have one group there."
Several groups have already got a head start on Saturday's work.
On Thursday, residents and staff from the Housing Enterprise for the Less Privileged (H.E.L.P), a nonprofit organization that provides housing, job training and day care to homeless families, began to transform an abandoned victory garden at the southern end of Crotona Park.
"We're going to plant flowers over there," said Schonna Green, the recreation director for Bronx H.E.L.P, as she pointed to four squares of grass in the center of the fenced-in garden. "The rest we're just going to mow down so people can sit on the grass and have a picnic."
Green was happy with the turnout; 40 people showed up for two shifts. "I was surprised at the kids," she said. "The kids that came in the morning all wanted to come back for the second shift."
Nearby, Lavorn Singleton, 11, whose mother works for H.E.L.P., planted pink begonias in an old sandbox he had helped change from a sea of weeds into a planter of dark soil.
H.E.L.P. also will turn out on Green-Up Day, but Green expects the project to last through the summer.
"We don't want this to be a haphazard thing," she said. "We want it to happen every year."
Other groups volunteering for next week's event share that philosophy.
"We've put in 60,000 hours of work over the past 15 years," said Al Quiones, who heads 52 People for Progress, a community group that takes care of Playground 52 on Kelly Street between Leggett Avenue and Avenue St. John.
"The Parks Department has Green-Up Day," he said. "For them, it's one day. For us it's every day."
*To join the spruce up*
Green-Up Day is Saturday. Call Valerie Davis-O'Neal at the borough parks office of the Department of Parks and Recreation at 430-1836.