The 30 people at the Peekskill Walks meeting on Oct. 29 in the community room of the River Pointe Senior Living Center on Ringgold Street heard from the group’s leadership about opportunities to join working groups to strengthen the all-volunteer organization. They also heard about ways to support a food drive that benefits CHHOP’s Turkey Trot.
In their opening remarks, Jen Zawacki and Greg Gutkes gave an overview of how the group formed in 2019 and explained the goal of Peekskill Walks. Their mission is to make Peekskill more walkable through safety, accessibility, and more welcoming to pedestrians and bikers.
They outlined six areas where residents could become involved. The categories include:
Events, Fundraising, Public Spaces, Communications, Community Partnerships, Government and Policy.
The specifics of Events management would include planning community participation such as mapping, clean-ups, historic walking tours, food drives.
For those interested in fundraising there is the opportunity to reach out to the public to fund events the group organizes such as clean-ups. Zawacki mentioned that, in the past, residents engaged in clean-up of public spaces would fund the purchase of plastic bags, gloves, and other items.
Those interested in the Public Spaces category would work on place-making around town, a campaign to make Esther Place permanent, and implementing crosswalk art.
People with communication skills are encouraged to volunteer for the Communication group to post on social media plus manage an email list and a website.
Community Partnerships involve building relationships with local businesses, organizations and schools, and research and seeking grants for projects such as sidewalk repairs.
Those interested in Government and Policy would be tasked with building relationships with city staff, tracking Common Council agendas for relevant items, attending meetings, and identifying areas for policy change.
For the past three years, Peekskill Walks has sponsored a food drive for Caring for the Hungry and Homeless of Peekskill (CHHOP) at local businesses that has netted some 500 pounds of food for the nonprofit organization that hosts the Turkey Trot the Saturday before Thanksgiving.
This year, Peekskill Walks and the Rotary Club have joined forces as partners in promoting the food drive. People can drop off donations at the following locations: Bantam Tools Machine Arts Gallery +Freekskill at 107 S. Division Street; Bean Runner Cafe at 201 South Division Street; Benny’s Brown Bag at 1100 Elm Street; CCC Cafe at 8 John Walsh Boulevard; City Hall, 840 Main Street; Copperhead Club; 137 North Water Street; Fuhgeddaboudit Deli, 241 Welcher Avenue; Peekskill Coffee House, 101 South Division Street; and Peekskill Strength (CrossFit) members.
Fliers that are hanging around town promoting the food drive were donated by Copy Center & Services. Items needed for the food drive are: spices such as salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, sazon) cooking staples such as cooking oil, rice, beans (cans or bags) corn meal; pantry essentials, (canned corn, tomato sauce, tomato paste). Other canned non-perishables are also welcome.
The food boxes will be collected on Nov. 18 in time to be distributed at the Turkey Trot Saturday, Nov. 22.
