Treecycle your Christmas Tree!

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Parent Category: Newsflashes

Category: Newsflash

Recycle your Christmas tree into wood chips! These wood chips are used to nourish trees and plants on streets and gardens citywide (or you can even take some home with you if you go to MulchFest - details below!).

There are 2 ways you can recycle your tree - curbside collection or MulchFest:

CURBSIDE COLLECTION

The NYC Department of Sanitation will be conducting special collections for mulching and recycling of Christmas trees.  Collections will take place beginning on Monday, January 5 through Friday, January 16, 2015.  You are encouraged to put out their discarded trees at curbside as early as possible during the collection period. DSNY asks residents to remove all tree stands, tinsel, lights, and ornaments from trees before placing them out for collection. DO NOT place trees in plastic bags. Trees will be chipped into mulch that will be distributed to parks, playing fields, and community gardens throughout the city.

MULCHFEST 2015

You can also participate in NYC Parks & Recreation Mulchfest by bringing your holiday tree to a designated sites throughout the five boroughs on Saturday or Sunday, January 10 & 11, 2015, from 10 am to 2 pm. All of the trees will be chipped into mulch that will be used as ground cover to nourish plantings across the City. Before dropping off your tree, please remove all tree stands, tinsel, lights, and ornaments from trees. Free mulch will be available at Mulchfest locations —bring a bag if you would like to take home some mulch.

MULCHFEST AT PROSPECT PARK: On Saturday, January 10, 10am – 2pm, join the Prospect Park Alliance, Park Slope Civic Council and NYC Parks on January 10 and 11 for MulchFest. Bring your holiday tree to Prospect Park, where it will transform into environment-friendly mulch. The entrance for MULCHFEST at Prospect Park is at 3rd Street or Park Circle.

Volunteers needed! Help assist people who bring their trees in for recycling by removing ornaments and distributing mulch. Register today.

2014 Toys for Tots!

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Category: Holidays and Special Events

Make sure no child goes without a present to open this Holiday season with Toys for Tots.

This year the Park Slope Civic Council and Park Slope Parents are joining forces for the biggest Toys for Tots drive EVER! With over 30 locations throughout Park Slope, Gowanus and Kensington, there’s always a convenient place to drop off toys! Donate a new or very gently used unwrapped gift for children ages 12 and under at locations across the Slope. All toys collected are given to local organizations that work with families in need.

Now through Tuesday, Jan. 6, you can drop off toys and gifts at the following sites.
We also have all our locations conveniently Google Mapped for you!

Toys will also be collected at this year’s Jingle Bell Jamboree held at at Congregation Beth Elohim (Eighth Ave at Garfield Place) on Saturday, Dec. 14, 7 p.m. Let’s make 2014 even better than last year! Thanks to your support, we collected over 2,000 toys that went to kids in need from organizations such as Safe Horizons, CHiPS, Crown Heights Community Mediation Center and others!

TIPS FOR GETTING INVOLVED:

• SHOP LOCAL to keep the community strong!
• If you’re unable to shop local, put an extra gift in your online cart for those in need!
• Make it a family affair and have your kids help choose the gift and deliver them together.

DROP OFF LOCATIONS:

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How to Winterize your Home

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Parent Category: The Hood

Category: Managing Urban Life

We asked our members about how to winterize NYC homes and here are their helpful replies...

Tips from Parents:

1. Get an energy audit

"You should call for an Energy Audit.  I’m having ours done next Wednesday, I’m not sure of the cost yet but I believe it is covered by various incentives.  After the audit you can become eligible for incentives offered by National Grid and NY SERDA for up to 20% of the cost of any weatherization measures done.  We had a free audit done by a guy from National Grid who was knowledgeable but he was basically there to get people to take advantage of the weatherization incentives (which need an actual audit to qualify). My feeling is that no matter how much we spend on weatherization, we’ll get it back in lower heating bills."

"National Grid has a service for businesses or multi-family dwellings where they do have an online analyzer and an onsite audit etc. Check it out here."

2. Insulate any drafty places, like an attic.

"The most important measure is probably insulating the attic and sealing any airspaces up there (If you insulate without sealing, you are basically creating a giant, expensive air filter).  If your house is a rowhouse, you probably aren’t losing too much energy from the walls."

Parent safety reminder: "Is your house ventilated?  You don’t want to start sealing everything up and not have enough clean ventilation."

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