On February 2nd Punxsutawney Phil, Pennsylvania groundhog and weather predictor extraordinaire, saw his shadow and declared six more weeks of winter. But two weeks later, the employees at New York Cares decided it was time for winter to be over, and declared it New York Cares Day Spring season.

Registration for New York Cares Day Spring (formerly Hands on New York Day) is now live. On April 21st, join 5,000 of your fellow New Yorkers and get to work preparing our parks, gardens, and waterfront spaces for the spring and summer seasons ahead.

Volunteers are needed in a variety of roles to make this day possible. Sign up to be a Site Captain and take the lead managing projects and volunteers at your location. Recruit your friends, family, and coworkers to serve along side you to have a bigger impact as a Team Leader. Or register as an individual to meet other like-minded New Yorkers committed to greening and improving our city’s open spaces.

Want to be even greener? New York Cares Day Spring is also a great opportunity to support New York Cares by fundraising. Awesome prizes will be awarded to top fundraising teams.

Don’t let Punxsutawney Phil fool you. Despite the fairly mild winter, our public spaces – form the East River shores to the top of Todt Hill – still need your help as the warm weather fast approaches. So break out your light jackets and put away your winter gear, for New York Cares Day Spring is here!

By Joseph Salas

Thank you for making our 17th annual Hands On New York Day such a great success! A total of 4,700 volunteers – that’s an astounding 9,400 hands - joined together with HSBC Bank USA, N.A. to beautifyNYC!  Spreading out across the city, volunteers braved the cold and threat of rain to cleanup and revitalize community gardens, parks and public spaces. As a result, 70 of our city’s most beloved community oases are now transformed and ready for summer.

Together, we weeded, pruned, planted, mulched, painted and cleaned our way to a greener, greater New York City, and as a result, we paved the way for an improved quality of life for millions of our city’s residents.

This day simply would not have been possible without you. Check out our Facebook and Twitter to see pictures and news from different Hands On New York Day sites across the city. Tell us about your experience, and share your own photos from the day. If you’re on Twitter, include #honyd11.

Thanks again for making Hands On New York Day 2011 a day to remember!

For the first time ever, New York Cares organized a citywide writing contest – entitled “New York Cares About the Environment” – to engage public school students in celebrating Hands On New York Day, sponsored by HSBC Bank USA, N.A. The response was inspiring! In total, we received 60 qualified submissions from 4^th, 5^th and 6^th grade students, all of which brought to life the natural poet within. Participating students used the all-mighty pen – their tool of choice – to create poems, stories and essays that presented a modern twist on the age old topic of environmental preservation.

Yvonne P, a 5^th grader from Sunnyside, Queens, was awarded the top prize of a NOOK Color, plus $50 worth of eBooks, for her poem entitled “Nature.”  In celebration of her accomplishment, Yvonne was chauffeured to Riverside Park in the eco-friendly HSBC Checker Cab, where she was presented with her prize and recognized by the volunteer team of 200 HSBC employees, friends and family!

Read more about the contest and the top three winners that made New York Cares bestselling list.

This morning, 5,000 volunteers are spreading throughout 70 community parks and gardens to remove winter debris, mulch, plant flowers and trees and paint fences and benches, getting our city’s public spaces cleaner, greener and ready for summer. We’ll be posting updates from Hands On New York Day all day long on Facebook and Twitter, so come back soon to check out the progress our volunteers are making in each borough! If you’re volunteering, we encourage you to share your experiences and photos with us too. If you’re on Twitter, be sure to include #honyd11.

In celebration of our annual Hands On New York Day, New York Cares held a citywide writing contest for 4th, 5th and 6th graders at New York City public schools. With more than 60 qualified submissions, a panel of judges, including an executive from our presenting sponsor HSBC, a bestselling author, a nonprofit program director and New York Cares staff, have been busy reviewing and evaluating each literary masterpiece. Submissions included a variety of creative takes on this year’s theme – “New York Cares about the Environment” – and ranged from short stories to essays to poetry.

New York Cares would like to thank all of our judges that dedicated their time to uncovering what could be the next J.K. Rowling or Mark Twain budding in our midst.

Luanne Rice is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty-nine novels that have been translated into twenty-four languages.  The author of Beach Girls, Crazy In Love and Cloud Nine, Rice’s books often center on love, family, nature and the sea.  Her monologue “My Almost Family” is part of the play In Mother Words currently performed at Los Angeles’ Geffen Playhouse and opening on New York’s Primary Stages in the fall of 2011. Rice is a passionate environmentalist and involved with Georgetown University Law Center’s Domestic Violence Clinic.  Born in New Britain, Connecticut, Rice divides her time between New York City and Old Lyme, Connecticut in the house where she spent all her childhood summers.

Sasha Greene joined HSBC’s Community Investment team in 2010 to help develop the department’s strategy, board placement and management programs and employee recognition program. She also supports work with national partnerships and collaborates with marketing on sponsorships. Prior to working with HSBC, Sasha was part of the Community Affairs team at Morgan Stanley focusing on employee engagement initiatives, which included the Global Volunteer Month initiative, a year-end employee giving campaign and the Top Ten volunteer award.  Sasha has also worked and volunteered with a variety of nonprofits, such as Mercy Corps and New York Cares.

Barbara Glassman serves as the Director of Corporate Relations at New York Cares. Since Barbara got her start at New York Cares in 1999, she has held a variety of different positions within the organization and went from being a volunteer to managing a wide range of issue areas, including revitalization, environment, senior citizens, hunger and much more. From 2003-2010, her work has primarily focused on children’s and adult education volunteer programming – overseeing the creation of more than 6,000 volunteer projects and 48,000 education-related volunteer opportunities citywide.

Roxanna Chowdhry-Velasquez is currently the Director of Programs at Fordham Bedford Community Services.  Fordham Bedford Community Services is a subsidiary of Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation, a nonprofit housing company in the Bronx.  Before joining Fordham Bedford, she worked for five years at an Elementary School.   Roxanna has always had a passion for working with youth and has created new programs, in her current position, to meet the growing needs of the community.   Some of the many projects she oversees include S.A.T. Classes, A College Preparation Program, Academic Support Programs, Literacy Programs and an array of summer recreation programs.

There’s no end to the amount of New Yorkers that dedicate all their efforts into making their city a beautiful and better place to live.

Take, for example, Ayo Harrington. Twenty years ago, Harrington started a community garden project in the Lower East Side to make her neighborhood as beautiful as she imagined it could be. Each day, Harrington puts her heart and soul into making Orchard Alley garden a truly green oasis in the middle of the city. Take a look at Orchard Alley now:

Beneath the snow left over from this winter’s blizzards lies a garden just waiting to come back to life. To the New York Cares volunteers that will help her clean her garden up each year as part of our annual Hands On New York Day on April 16th, Harrington can’t express her appreciation enough. Her garden, as well as countless others in the city planted and cared for by well-meaning New Yorkers, are depending on the help of New York Cares volunteers to bring back to its full potential. To volunteer for Hands on New York Day, please visit us at this link.

Euclid Garden in East New York is one of the many community spaces that has benefited from New York Cares’ annual Hands on New York Day; this year is no different. On April 16th, 2011, New York Cares volunteers are happy to help prep, revitalize, and refresh the garden – but no one is more thrilled than community gardener Kelvin Hosein.

Our work on Hands on New York Day at Euclid Garden will come just in time for a fundraising event held the following weekend. Each year, Hosein hosts events dedicated to raising money for worthy causes, and this spring, he’s hoping to raise $6,000 for cancer research.

Hosein started the garden in 1982 and it has served as a beloved neighborhood fixture ever since. Last year, as a result of his fundraiser, Hosein and his fellow community members were able to give a large donation to City Harvest. They’re anxious to repeat the good deed this year!

To volunteer for Hands on New York Day, visit us at this link.

In 1979, William A Harris started a community garden in an empty lot in Harlem. As the years passed, the garden grew from a barren plot of land into a thriving green patch in the city, complete with ripe vegetables, fruits, and flowers coloring the landscape, all under the loving care of William Harris.

This year, Harris turned 90 years old, and his daughters run the garden themselves. The Harris family is thrilled to have New York Cares volunteers clean up and revitalize this beloved and essential community space on Hands on New York Day on April 16th, 2011. In addition to nurturing the garden, our volunteers will paint a mural of William Harris, which will be presented to him at a block party held in his honor the following weekend.

It’s clear that the neighborhood loves Harris for his beautiful contribution to their community, and we’re glad to help any way possible. To volunteer for Hands on New York Day, visit us at this link.

Thank you for making Hands On New York Day such a great day of service. 5,000 volunteers spread out all across the city to take advantage of the beautiful weather and work towards a great cause.

Together we weeded, pruned, planted, mulched, painted, and cleaned our way to a greener New York City, revitalizing 69 public spaces and improving the quality of life for millions of residents this spring and summer.

Check out more photos from the day on Facebook as we add to our Hands On New York Day 2010 album.

The Mission Continues team, an organization honoring veterans, spruced up the grounds around the World War I Memorial in Astoria Park to round off their public service activities for National Volunteer Week.