On Sunday, October 4th I went to the Overlook in Forest Park to receive daffodil bulbs as part of the Daffodil Project which is coordinated by NY4Parks and the NYCDP&R...The volunteers on hand distributing the bulbs were Barbara Morris, Spirit of Laurelton and Cornucopia Society -- Beverly McDermott, Friends of Kissena Park and Kissena Civic Association -- Rose Funderburk, President 105th Precinct Community Council -- Nicole Taylor, New Yorkers for Parks, Project Manager -- and Fred Kresse - President - Queens Coalition for Parks and Green Spaces...
Volunteers with the Queens Coalition for Parks and Green Spaces help man receive free daffodil bulbs (L-R) Barbara Morris (in red sweatshirt), Fred Kresse - President QCPGS and Rose Funderburk (in baseball cap)About the Daffodil Project
The Daffodil Project was originally created to commemorate September 11. Now in its seventh year, the annual effort-led by New Yorkers for Parks (NY4P) in cooperation with the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR)-not only brings together volunteers and raises the spirits of New Yorkers, but also draws attention to the needs of neglected parks and open spaces citywide.
The Daffodil Project is made possible in part by the generosity of a Dutch bulb supplier, Hans van Waardenburg of B&K Flowerbulbs, who has pledged to donate 500,000 daffodil bulbs to the project each year as long as there are volunteers willing to plant them. More than 20,000 volunteers have responded to his challenge so far. And thanks to their efforts, more than 3 million yellow daffodils will bloom in over 2,000 individual sites across the five boroughs in the spring of 2008.
NY Times article - Daffodils Blossom for a Wounded City
This bronze statue of a bareheaded infantryman pausing at the grave of a fallen comrade was dedicated in 1926 as a gift of the people of Richmond Hill to commemorate community residents killed in World War I. Although the sculptor’s title for the piece is My Buddy, the statue is popularly known as “The Doughboy”.
The origin of the word “doughboy” to describe an American infantryman is contested. One common theory suggests that the term refers to the large buttons, reminiscent of dumplings, that adorned the uniforms of infantrymen in the Civil War. Journalist H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) advanced another explanation: “Doughboy was originally applied to the infantry only. It originated in the fact that infantrymen, on practice marches, were served rations of flour, and that they made crude biscuits of this flour when they halted.” The first published usage appeared in the mid-19th century, but today “doughboy” is used almost exclusively to describe infantrymen who served in World War I.
Joseph Pollia (1893-1954), who later created the General Sheridan monument in Sheridan Square, sculpted My Buddy at a time when many World War I monuments were being commissioned. However, Pollia’s figure is distinguished by its pose: doughboys were not typically depicted bareheaded and at rest. The evocation of mourning rather than fighting suitably commemorates the long and ruinous war that has since spawned more monuments than any other conflict in American history. To some observers, the figure recalls the silent film star Francis X. Bushman, whom Pollia may have used as a model for the statue.
William Van Alen (1882-1954), who is best remembered as the architect of the Chrysler Building in Manhattan, designed the granite pedestal that supports the statue. The tablet in front of the pedestal bears an honor roll listing the 71 death casualties from Richmond Hill. The nearby flagstaff, also fashioned from granite and bronze, is another gift from the people of Richmond Hill to honor those who served in World War I.
This five foot bronze statue of Job, mounted on a two foot schist and concrete base is one of two casts of a sculpture created by Natan J. Rapoport (1911-1987) for the 1968 celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel. Both were acquired by Dr. Murray and Sylvia Fuhrman, former residents of Kew Gardens, who then donated one to Yad Vashem, Israel’s National Holocaust Museum, in Jerusalem. The other stood in the Fuhrmans’ garden until 1986, when they donated it to the City of New York. Job was installed the following year south of the Overlook, Parks’ Queens headquarters, in Forest Park. Rapoport chose to depict the figure of Job, the biblical character whose story is told in the Old Testament, to convey the universal suffering and ultimate test of faith that was visited upon victims of the Holocaust. According to the Book of Job, the "perfect and upright man," is bereft of his family, his possessions, and even his health when the devil challenges the depth of his piety. Wrapped in a torn prayer shawl, with his head tilted heavenward and his hands clasped together, Job questions God’s justice in rewarding his faith with despair. In the Bible, Job’s life is subsequently restored to its former happy state. Rapoport was born in Poland and studied at the Warsaw Academy of Art and the École Superieure Nationale de Beaux Arts in Paris, France. He escaped the Nazis by fleeing to Russia in 1939 at the outbreak of World War II. Rapoport lived in France and Israel before coming to America in 1959. A resident of Manhattan, he became a United States citizen in 1965. Rapoport’s art was profoundly influenced by the Holocaust. One of his most celebrated works is Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, a 33-foot high memorial that was erected in 1948 at the site where the Jewish uprising against the Nazis began in February 1943. Rapoport was awarded the Herbert Adams medal for outstanding achievement in American sculpture by the National Sculpture Society in May 1987, less than a month before he died.
Friday, Aug 08, 1997
