Reminder: The Woodhaven Cultural & Historical Society will be giving a FREE slideshow presentation on Thursday, July 14th at 7 PM at Neir's Tavern. The name of the presentation is "The Story of Woodhaven."

On Friday June 24th, the Woodhaven Cultural & Historical Society held a fundraiser party at the Forest Park Carousel, who kindly donated the space.  The purpose of the party was to raise funds for the Woodhaven Historical Society, who provides numerous free presentations, events, movies, etc. throughout the year. And the main thrust of the fundraiser was to support the ongoing restoration of the Woodhaven Founders Cemetery, on 96th Street behind All Saints Church. Here is a video of that evening's fun:

One of the raffle prizes stood guard at the gate, greeting people as they entered. We were blessed with magnificent weather and people came to the carousel ready to have fun.

We were selling bracelets for $10 each and that entitled you to unlimited rides on the historic NYC Landmarked Forest Park Carousel and the new ride, the Woodhaven Express. 

Fr. Norman Whitmire of All Saints dropped by to say hello and thank everyone for coming out. He opened the cemetery to the community after so many years of it being hidden away like a messy room.

The line to buy tickets was long and we had to move fast to keep it going!

The tiger and the lion are always popular attractions. It's a beautiful ride and we're so fortunate to have it in our midst.

Local civic leaders came out to support us. Here, Alexander Blenkinsopp and Vance Barbour (with his wife Christine) of the Woodhaven Residents' Block Association join Assemblyman Mike Miller.

A few more friendly faces!

Every time we looked up, people were on line waiting to buy a bracelet - it was a very good night and we are grateful to everyone who came out to support us!  Thank you very very much!

There was a great magic show which the kids absolutely LOVED!

We were joined by Loycent Gordon and his wife Aisha and the newest addition to their family, Evan.  The Gordons own Neir's Tavern (please consider signing this petition to make Neir's Tavern a NYC Landmark!)

These are some of the folks that have been volunteering at the cemetery -- there are volunteers from the neighborhood and there are a lot of students from St. Thomas the Apostle's Woodhaven History Club (led by Patty Eggers) and there are some scouts from Troop 139 in Howard beach. It was nice to get so many of them together!

The winners of the giraffe!  We are glad he found a good home!

And here is what we have been working on - the cemetery behind All Saints, which is the final resting place for many of the original families that lived in Woodhaven.

This is a good example of how we have been transforming the land. In Number 1 you can see a lot of trees and the ground in unmanageable. Also, a fence was knocked down by debris. In Number 2, neighbors have erected a new fence and we have cleared the land of trees, weeds and roots. All that are left are the rocks and by Number 3, even they are gone. Now that piece of land is ready to be seeded and it will be able to be taken care of by a lawn mower.

Here is a map showing our progress.

The cemetery restoration crew meets on the 2nd Saturday of every month. We are still in need of volunteers. We provide the tools, the gloves and the lunch.

If you have any comments, or would like to suggest other projects, drop us a line at info@projectwoodhaven.com or projectwoodhaven@aol.com.  

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Photos by Joey Wendell