FHGT 2024 Year In Review
The Forest Hills Green Team has had an active 2024. We have done numerous beautification projects and cleanups in our community. We have actively engaged in advocating for legislation on the City and State level by meeting with legislators; by attending rallies and presenting at community forums We have educated students about climate change and developed contacts at various local schools. We realize that we can't do this work alone, so we developed numerous partnerships to enhance and magnify our impact. Here is a month to month summary of all we have accomplished:
January 2024
We opened the year by fighting to have our Food Scrap Drop Off Site continued. We were given a reprieve until mid-year to keep it going. We were involved in organizing several educational events focusing on explaining what is Community Composting: Compost Teach-in Presentation
We were involved with rallies in January promoting LL97 and the New York HEAT Act.
February 2024
We had 6 members attend the Queens Borough President’s Borough on your Block meeting, including 2 Forest Hills High School students.
Eric Arnum and Mark Laster, with members of Friday for Future and Open Plans did a presentation about Climate Change at the USA High School in Manhattan.
We met with Senator Comrie; Senator Ramos, AM Berger and AM Hevesi in partnership with Food and Water Watch; and with Manhattan SWAB to advocate for numerous bills addressing climate change.
We participated in a rally promoting the New York HEAT Act: Queens lawmakers rally in Woodside calling for energy prices to be capped for low-income New Yorkers
We were one of the presenting groups at the Forest Hills Asian Association's annual gathering of local civic groups.
March 2024
We had an op-ed published on the importance of Community Composting: Community Composting: A cry for help
Eric Arnum and Mark Laster escorted 7 Forest Hills High School students to the Columbia University Youth Climate Summit.
We co-sponsored a clean up along Metropolitan Avenue with MetroVillage, Senator Addabbo, AM Hevesi, CM Schulman and CB6.
With the support of three members of the Forest Hills Green Team, Anisia Ayon, Mark Laster and Matt Salton, who are also members of CB6, we had the community board pass this resolution: Queens Community Board 6 Resolutions
April 2024
We made a video highlighting the importance of community composting: How important composting is
We co-sponsored two panel discussions about Local Law 97 with the Queens Climate Project, New York Communities for Change, Food and Water Watch and NYPIRG.
We wrote an op-ed highlighting the importance of LL97: Why we need Local Law 97 now
We hosted a successful Participatory Budgeting voting site at our Food Scrap Drop Off Site.
Dan Miner and Marieh Zanzal met with representatives from Parks and Partnership for Parks to discuss activities at Yellowstone Park.
May 2024
Eric Arnum did a presentation about Climate Change at Halsey Junior High School.
Mark Laster in partnership with Dr. Ida Messana of Let's Talk Democracy did a presentation at Forest Hills High School regarding the importance of civic engagement.
We co-sponsored with MetroVillage; Senator Addabbo; AM Hevesi; CM Schulman; CB6 a clean-up along Metropolitan Avenue.
We did a clean-up along Yellowstone Boulevard.
Due to the Mayor’s budget cuts, we were forced to close our Food Scrap Drop Off Site. Though some of the budget cuts were restored by the City Council, our site remains closed. On our last day, we met with a reporter who posted this article about our closing: Budget cuts: Funding restored but problems remain for some community composting groups
June 2024
Salma Baksh, Vili Estevez and Emauel Moreno organized this presentation about the importance of civic engagement:
Civics Skills: Engaging Your Community Through Voter Education | Retro Report (youtube.com)
We were one of the lead organizations in the Central Queens Against Hate, where we organized a successful Breaking Bread Building Bonds luncheon.
As mentioned above, funding for Community Composting was restored by the City Council: Council Member Shaun Abreu (x.com)
Though our Food Scrap Drop Off Site by Commonpoint closed in May, we continued to maintain our relationship with Commonpoint by volunteering with some of their other activities.
July 2024
We had a volunteer day on Yellowstone Boulevard where we spread mulch: Yellowstone Bldv Mulch Spreading (facebook.com)
August 2024
Mask Laster, representing the FHGT, was an active member of the Save Our Compost Coalition’s newly formed Policy Committee.
We met with Big Reuse to discuss possibly re-starting our Food Scrap Drop Off site.
September 2024
Anisia Ayon, Mark Laster and Tian Tian tabled at Metro Village’s Community Day.
We participated in the Austrin Street Clean up.
We participated in the MacDonald Park Clean up.
We were one of the lead organizations in the Breaking Bread Building Bonds luncheon.
Mask Laster, representing the FHGT, joined with sixteen other organizations in meeting with CM Abreu, Chair of the Sanitation Committee.
Mask Laster, representing the FHGT, served on a panel organized by Let's Talk Democracy regarding Project 2025: Project 2025 Environmental Summary
October 2024
Eric Arnum and Mark Laster did a presentation at Archbishop Molloy High School about Climate Change along with Senator Addabbo.
Mask Laster, representing the FHGT, did a presentation about us at the in-person meeting of MetroVillage where we explained our group and activities.
Mask Laster, representing the FHGT, assisted and supported Friends of Yellowstone Park, a new group formed to beautify this park, organizing a meeting with Alexandra Vanegas of Partnership for Parks.
November 2024
Alyse Konigsberg and Janet Slater facilitated daffodil planting on Yellowstone Boulevard and Metropolitan Avenue and supplied Friends of Yellowstone Park with daffodil bulbs they planted. Here is a picture of us on Metropolitan Avenue
December 2024
We advocated for and participated in the celebration of the passing of a bill to give tax breaks for Local Law 97 compliance upgrades:
Mark Laster, representing the Forest Hills Green Team, attended monthly meetings of the New York City
Campaign Finance Board, getting literature we handed out about voting at our Food Scrap Drop Off Site
and at our tabling activities.
Tian Tian, representing the Forest Hills Green Team, attended meetings of the Climate Can’t Wait group.
Eric Arnum drove fourteen teenagers were driven in a rented van from Manhattan to Albany to the rally pressuring the Governor to sign the Climate Superfund Act which we supported: Climate Change Superfund Sit-in, Teach-in, Sing-in
which were one of many actions taken that lead to the passing and the Governor signing the Climate Superfund Act: Governor Signs Climate Change Superfund Act. She also signed the Stop Fracking with CO2 Act, one of the other bills we campaigned for: Hochul signs bill expanding New York’s fracking ban.
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Though we cannot do all this work without the support of all of you, we would like to highlight the people and organizational partners that have made this year a success:
Daisy Alter; Eric Arnum; Anisa Ayon; Salma Baksh; Jeanne Boyarsky; Rev.Jeffrey Courter; Martin Curtet; Vili Estevez; Alyse Koenigsberg; Soumaly King; Emanuel Moreno; Jackson O'Brien; Laura.Menikoff; Bob Newell; Matt Salton; Sheila Shapiro; Janet Slater; Tian Tian; Marieh Zanzal.
Archbishop Molloy High School (staff and number of students who volunteered with us);Big Reuse; Climate Can't Wait; Commonpoint Queens; Earth Citizens Club of Queens; Food and Water Watch; Forest Hills High School Youth Informed; Friends of MacDonald Park; Friends of Yellowstone Park; Fridays for Future; ; Let's Talk Democracy; MetroVillage; New York City Commission for Human Rights; New York Communities for Change; New York City Campaign Finance Board; Open Plans; Queens Climate Project; Queens Community Board #6; Save Our Compost Coalition; Stephen J Halsey JHS 157; USA High School
We acknowledge the support of our elected officials: Borough President Donovan Richards; Councilmember Lynn Schuman; Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi; Senator Joseph Addabbo; former Councilmember Costa Constantinides,
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We hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season. As we move into 2025, we have the following plans:
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We remain in regular contact with Big Reuse, connecting them to local schools and hopefully to support the restarting of our Food Scrap Drop Off Site
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We will continue our beautification and clean up activities
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We are working to schedule more school presentations. We have been connected by a local Bar Mitzvah boy to present at the 30 Avenue School Q300
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We are planning to educate the community about carbon removal initiatives
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We will continue our advocacy of legislation to fight climate change
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Since this is an election year, we will explore ways to assure candidates who support our priorities are elected
We do all this work on a limited budget. Though we are not a 501(c)(3), please consider donating to support our work.