Outdoor
oasis
FRIENDS OF THE PARK caring for their favorite PATCH OF GREEN By Tara Ryazansky Photos courtesy of Friends of Elysian Park: Robert Broadbent Beth Diver Margaret Mallan Traut Roseanne Versaci ast year, the city of Hoboken invited residents to form Friends of the Parks groups. The hope was that volunteer community groups would help support and maintain outdoor spaces. Three
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groups were formed; Friends of Church Square Park, Friends of Jefferson Park, and Friends of Elysian Park. Maggie Mallan volunteers for Friends of Elysian Park, between 10th and 11th Streets and Hudson Street and Frank Sinatra Drive. She walks her chihuahua there. “It’s been on my route with him for the past 17 years,” she says. “He’s elderly now. We walk all the way over from 12th and Park. Then we walk a loop in the Elysian Park. In his younger days, when he was feeling frisky, we would go down and
walk on the waterfront and then come back. He loves a long walk.” Mallan enjoys it, too. “I’ve always been in love with the Elysian Park,” she says. “There are so many details, because it’s a historic park, that I felt were worthy of preservation. It has meandering pathways, like Central Park. Then there’s the nature aspect, like watching the animals. It’s nice to be able to see all the birds and hang out in the shade.”
Fellow Travelers Mallan responded to the call for volunteers in February, 2020, but the pandemic changed things for her and her fellow Friends of the Park, who hope to start inperson outdoor monthly meetings soon. “We met and connected for the first time on Zoom, ”Mallan says. “We have made
