Advertising Rockville Centre's green spaces

Conservancy works to bring attention to local parks

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For the remaining Sundays in June, Rockville Centre residents may notice a large group of people doing yoga on the Village Green. This is just one of the many programs that the Rockville Centre Conservancy has created for residents.

The Rockville Centre Conservancy is a group dedicated to calling attention to the parks and public spaces within the town.

“We want people to see the resources around them,” said Kathleen Murray, the village’s director at Office of Community Development and the treasurer of the Conservancy.

The group, which was created five years ago by former mayor Mary Bossart, is planning programs for this summer and the upcoming year. Resident Mary Beth Croutier formulated Yoga on the Green after a trip to Rome where she witnessed 300 people doing yoga in front of the ruins.

“It was amazing,” she said. After her trip, she contacted the owners of RVC Yoga in St. Marks Church on Hempstead Avenue to create a similar practice in the village. Along with Sunday yoga, the Conservancy also plans to have speakers at its community garden on Jefferson Avenue, which it created in the spring.

“Now that the vegetation is growing in we would really love to have people come and speak there about topics like organic gardening and pest control,” said Croutier. Murray also stated that the goal of the garden was to get people in touch with the earth as well as building a community of people who enjoy gardening. “This year we connected 16 people with the plots,” Murray said, “next year we may connect 20.”

In the past few months, the Conservancy has also had an Earth Day clean-up at Centennial Park as well as a day of kayaking on Hempstead Lake.

At the clean up, Murray said that volunteers got in touch with the environment as well as made the park more enjoyable for others. The day of kayaking was a peaceful escape from the bustle of the village. One resident said that in the middle of the lake, one would never know they were near a highway of any sort.

In the future, the group would like to instate a walking club in Skelos Park as well as continue its tree inventory, which assesses the state of all of the trees in the village to determine if they are healthy or need replacement. The walking club would follow the trails by Skelos Field and Hempstead Lake.

The Conservancy also looks forward to future fundraising for new projects that will bring more awareness to the parks and public areas within the Village of Rockville Centre.

Rockville Centre residents can learn more about the Conservancy, as well as volunteer and donation opportunities, at rvcconservancy.org.

“My husband and I are active users of the parks and have been interested in the preservation and beautification of [them],” Croutier said. “The RVC Conservancy has a pro-active approach that allows like-minded members to explore ideas that enhance the quality of our village.”