{"id":143875,"date":"2026-02-24T16:42:40","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T16:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/143875\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T16:42:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T16:42:40","slug":"brooklyn-kids-celebrate-first-official-closure-in-seven-years-with-sledding-in-prospect-park-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/143875\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn kids celebrate first official closure in seven years with sledding in Prospect Park \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"NY:\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Park Slope resident Gustavo \u201cGoose\u201d practices his freestyle snowboarding skills in Prospect Park.<\/p>\n

Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

After a blizzard dropped nearly two feet of snow<\/a> on parts of New York City from Sunday into Monday \u2014 making it the ninth-largest snowfall ever recorded in the city \u2014 kids and parents celebrated the first official, traditional snow day for public school students in seven years with an afternoon of sledding, snowboarding and skiing in Prospect Park.<\/p>\n

The hills near the park\u2019s Prospect Park Tennis House and the Ninth Street Entrance were packed with families and budding Olympic-hopeful snowboarders racing down slopes covered in heavy, powdery snow \u2014 perfect conditions for sledding.<\/p>\n

Jamie Courville and her 9-year-old daughter, Opal, spent the afternoon in the park with their friends, Eleanor Vierling and her sons, Fern and Otis.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"Brooklynites enjoyed an afternoon of sledding in Prospect Park on Monday, Feb. 23. \"\"Brooklynites enjoyed an afternoon of sledding in Prospect Park on Monday, Feb. 23.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"Park Slope resident Gustavo \u201cGoose\u201d practices his freestyle snowboarding skills in Prospect Park.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"Park Slope resident Jasper practices his freestyle skiing skills in Prospect Park.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Courville told Brooklyn Paper that Opal didn\u2019t even know official snow days existed until Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that public schools would be closed Monday due to the storm.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI was actually really excited, because I have never had [an official snow day] before,\u201d Opal proclaimed, adding that it was great to have a day off without anything school-related.\n<\/p>\n

Courville said she had already broken the news to Opal that school would resume Tuesday and admitted she felt relieved, saying the timing of the blizzard and snow day \u2014 immediately after winter recess \u2014 was \u201ca bit torturous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re ready to get back to it. And then I saw the blizzard warning, and I probably had a mild temper tantrum, but this is very nice. I\u2019m so happy to be here right now. I mean, look at this,\u201d Courville said, gesturing toward the winter landscape.<\/p>\n

\"\"Instead of a traditional snowman, these friends built a dragon.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"Some Brooklynites even enjoyed an afternoon of skiing through Prospect Park.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Vierling, a Brooklyn high school teacher, admitted to Brooklyn Paper that she had hoped the mayor would declare another snow day on Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cMy joke is I was hoping that the elementary schools would be open, but the high schools will be closed, but we\u2019re having a great day,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

She was also concerned that some teachers who used last week\u2019s winter break for short trips wouldn\u2019t make it back in time due to widespread flight cancellations at John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport, and Newark Liberty International Airport on Sunday and Monday. According to FlightAware, hundreds of flights were also canceled Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s gonna be a messy week, but it\u2019ll be good. I\u2019d rather have in-person school than Zoom school,\u201d Vierling said, noting that in-person learning is far more productive for students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fun. I\u2019ve never taken a day off to just go sledding during a school day,\u201d Otis added.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"Brooklynites enjoyed an afternoon of sledding in Prospect Park on Monday, Feb. 23.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"Elana (center) celebrated her 26th birthday with her friends in Prospect Park.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Elana and her friends marked her 26th birthday with a day of snow play in the park.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been sledding. I grew up sledding here, so it\u2019s always fun at any age. Twenty-six, still going strong \u2014 it\u2019s always fun, no matter the age,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

The Kensington resident said she was thrilled for the kids enjoying their official snow day, noting they \u201cwouldn\u2019t be productive in school anyway right now.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so happy for them; the kids need this. It\u2019s such an important part of childhood to frolic outside in the snow,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"Brooklynites enjoyed an afternoon of sledding in Prospect Park on Monday, Feb. 23.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"Brooklynites enjoyed an afternoon of sledding in Prospect Park on Monday, Feb. 23.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"Brooklynites enjoyed an afternoon of sledding in Prospect Park on Monday, Feb. 23.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Elana\u2019s friend, Dax Clark, who grew up in Arkansas and has lived in Brooklyn for more than two years, said this winter brought his first real snow experience.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the most snow I\u2019ve ever seen in my life,\u201d Clark told Brooklyn Paper. \u201cI love the snow. So I always love to go out and play like I\u2019m 12.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Clark visited snowy scenes in Central Park and Bushwick before heading to Prospect Park. When asked which was best, he didn\u2019t hesitate: \u201cProspect Park, absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Park Slope resident Gustavo \u201cGoose\u201d practices his freestyle snowboarding skills in Prospect Park. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[31286,60367,98,100,99,9,24,63,15739,35184,8555,48673],"class_list":["post-143875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-blizzard","tag-blizzard-2026","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-prospect-park","tag-sledding","tag-snow","tag-snow-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}