Community spirit was in full bloom as volunteers from Mount Saint Mary College joined forces with the Downing Park Planning Committee and the Garden Club of Orange and Dutchess Counties for a concentrated clean-up effort.
Dozens of volunteers, including many students from the college’s Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP), descended on Downing Park in October and November, working side-by-side with local residents to plant flowers, clear brush, and prepare the landscape for the coming winter.
Karen Eberle-McCarthy, professor emerita of Spanish at Mount Saint Mary College, helped to coordinate the effort. She is also a member of both the Downing Park Conservancy and the Garden Club of Orange and Dutchess Counties, so the effort held a very special place in her heart.
The clean-up is part of an ongoing initiative by the Downing Park Planning Committee to restore the park to its former glory. Downing Park was the last collaboration between renowned landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. Their plan for Downing Park was completed in 1889 and was a tribute to their mentor, Andrew Jackson Downing.