I thought about what today's work day would be like. I was very excited and nervous at the same time. I knew that I and my fellow coworkers are amazing when it comes to getting something done, but our plans for today were different. Today we met the real world, the people outside Prospect Park. I tried calming myself by just keeping our prior successes in mind. We had planned the whole day ahead.
First we went to visit the Brooklyn offices of Council Member Letitia James. We were very honored that Council Member James took away time from her busy schedule and agreed to meet with us. She gladly wanted to meet the most adorable, wonderful Youth Advocates that work for Transportation Alternatives. We came to the office and Council Member James's secretary introduced us to the staff, and took us upstairs to meet the wonderful and friendly Council Member Letitia James. At first, we were nervous. I and my fellow coworkers were wondering how well we would speak, however our supervisor, and Lindsey Lusher, Director of the Streets Renaissance Campaign, who came along with us for the event, told us not to worry because we were well prepared for this. We came upstairs and each of us introduced ourselves to Council Member James. She individually asked us questions about who we were, what school we attend, and most of all, why do we care so much about car-free park. We introduced ourselves, we talked about what we have been doing this summer, what events we hosted, and about the two thousand postcards we have gotten signed thus far. I believe the main purpose of us going to meet Council Member James, one of the four park-side council members who support our campaign, was because it was very important for us to introduce ourselves. We also asked her to join us for an event we will be hosting in mid-September. We will be walking across the Brooklyn Bridge to hand-deliver our piles of postcards, symbolic of so many Brooklynites who want their park to be a safe and healthy place to play, directly to Mayor Bloomberg's doorstep, where we will host a rally on the steps of City Hall. (Stay tuned for up-dates on our event!) We asked Council Member James to join us in our trek and as long as schedules work out, she will be there with us at City Hall. At the end of our meeting, we took great pictures and also got Council Member Letitia James to sign our postcard for a car-free park.
After the meeting was over, we went to Prospect Park and got some more postcards signed. While we felt much honored after having a great meeting with the Council Member, the day wasn't over yet. She was awesome and welcomed us very well. We are looking forward to meet all of the district members.
But the long day wasn't over yet. We had even a greater opportunity ahead: Hello World, We are the Prospect Park Youth Advocates, on TV! We felt so special that NY1 was coming to visit and interview us. They wanted to know all about us and announce to New York City who the Youth Advocates are and what they are doing to be involved with their communities. We were all interviewed individually as the car traffic rushed by behind us. (We'll be sure to post our interviews with NY1 as soon as they air!) While we clocked the speeds of the cars that were driving in the park (mugging for the camera, of course, with the car speeds appearing in neon on a display board), someone became very rude. They threw water at us and drove off yelling, "Speeding Rules". This was very upsetting but that didn't stop us from doing what we were doing, and I have always heard that in the practice of defending the world, when individuals start to hate on you, you know are doing something right.
Overall, we had a great day and we got done a lot of things. I really hope that working so hard this summer trying to accomplish our goal, though it will take a lot of time and energy, will hopefully all be worth it. We can't wait till we have our park be a CAR-FREE PARK!
