It\u2019s springtime at Hudson River Park. For some, it’s a time to get outside.<\/p>\n
For Maki Thomas Livesay, it’s time to get to work. The Chelsea resident volunteers at the park a few times a month during the spring, summer and fall.<\/p>\n
“I just think if everybody gives a little bit then it makes the city a little bit better,” she said.<\/p>\n
Livesay’s relationship with the park blossomed during the pandemic lockdown.<\/p>\n
“Ooh, I get to give back to the city and to the place that kind of made me feel a little bit better during all the bad things that were happening,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Maki Thomas Livesay is a regular volunteer at Hudson River Park
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The Chelsea resident has led a life of service, from serving in the U.S. Air Force to volunteering at food pantries
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Livesay recently received the Golden Shovel Award as a thank you for her service to Hudson River Park<\/p>\n
Helping others comes naturally to Livesay. She also volunteers at local food pantries and soup kitchens. Before that, she served 20 years in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as a colonel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“My father served, my sister served,\u201d she said. \u201cIt’s kind of, sort of in my nature to give back.”<\/p>\n
These days, Livesay is here at the park, pruning and planting. She always has a positive attitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe often have\u00a0\u2014 get a lot of new folks that join our volunteer projects and to have, you know, someone who’s working alongside them to kind of just show, you know, an example,\u201d said Tobin Kent, a senior manager of corporate and community engagement with Hudson River Park Friends. “Everything we could ask for in a volunteer.”<\/p>\n
She also keeps the shores clean, a responsibility she finds particularly important as a certified scuba diver.<\/p>\n
“It’s kind of neat to be able to give back to the waters and keeping it clean and making sure that the fishies and the people who visit here have a nice, clean area to be in,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her service at the park has been so appreciated, Hudson River Park Friends honored her with their Golden Shovel Award a couple of months ago.<\/p>\n
“I’ve always wanted to live here and it’s nice to be able to kind of say thanks to the city by, by volunteering,” she said.<\/p>\n
For creating a clean and green space for her neighbors, Maki Thomas Livesay is our New Yorker of the Week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s springtime at Hudson River Park. For some, it’s a time to get outside. For Maki Thomas Livesay,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7914,25,7913,9,24,11,10,7911,12,7912,27,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-203151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-app-new-yorker-of-the-week","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-chelsea-katz","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-new-yorker-of-the-week","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-pat-kiernan","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203151","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=203151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}