Dennis McEnery started volunteering at the Floral Park Centennial Gardens in 1997 and now, over two decades years later, he’s cultivating a new generation of helpers to grow the park even more.

Community members — and local wildlife — flock to the Centennial Gardens every summer to nourish the 13-acre land.

On Aug. 3, the gardens hosted its monthly Weed Out day, where volunteers — new and old — decided on how they wanted to improve the area.

From various projects to growing plants, there are plenty of options for the volunteers to get their hands dirty — sometimes literally.

“People say, ‘when can I volunteer?’,” McEnery, founder of the Floral Park Conservation Society, said. “And the answer is you can volunteer any time you’re open. We’re a hands-on organization and so when someone says, ‘I want to start a lavender garden’ or ‘I want to start a rose garden’ or ‘I want to grow vegetables for the poor,’ I tell them to go ahead.”

Volunteers of the group collectively dedicate thousands of hours each year to creating and maintaining various gardens and the bird sanctuary so that the community can enjoy them for years to come.

McEnery was one of the earliest volunteers at the gardens. He moved to Floral Park in 1997, which coincided with the village taking ownership of the site from the county a year later.

The gardens, fittingly located in Floral Park, used to be a storm basin for over 70 years, but after neighbors aired their concerns about the sump, the village turned it into a passive recreational area.

“One of the things that Steve Corbett, the mayor at the time, really wanted was to have a not-for-profit organization created, which is the Floral Park Conservation Society,” McEnery said.

The Floral Park Conservation Society, a non-profit organization, was created in 1998 to provide service at the gardens.

McEnery said the conservation society’s first task was to clear out all of the debris that had built up at the location over the years. The next task was to replace an old chain-link fence.

After the fence project, McEnery said his group received funding from the county as part of the Environmental Bond Act. With the money, the group installed a brick walkway around the park’s perimeter. Over two dozen LED lights were installed to follow the path.

The walkway followed the natural dirt pathway that people had developed over time. McEnery said this makes the walkway feel “organic,” as it isn’t a straight-line path but rather a “nice kind of meandering walkway.”

After the completion of these projects, the park was well on its way to opening for the village’s 100th anniversary in 2008. McEnery said in the early 2000s, it didn’t seem possible for the park to be opened by then.

However, when that year came “quickly,” McEnery said, it not only opened but was fully operational to the public.

Now, the park is open each year from April through November, every day of the week from noon to 5 p.m. Scores of gardens have been created, with hundreds of plants and trees added to the area.

Along with the planting, volunteers, under the guidance of McEnery, have been working on various projects, including constructing the wooden center pathway bridge, creating several scenic overlooks with sitting areas, and adding many pathways to the site.

“One of the key components or keystones of the centennial gardens is the volunteers, the plantings, and the management,” McEnery said.

McEnery said volunteers try to add at least one additional feature to the gardens every year. One of the recent projects was a wood carving of a 60-foot tree near the gardens’ entrance. Another year, a muralist repainted the murals at the park.

Specific volunteers work on making the gardens more friendly to local wildlife, such as bees, birds, and butterflies. Don Haug, a volunteer known as the ‘Bird Man of Floral Park,’ created bird feeders for the garden. Volunteer Shane Moynaugh maintains the beehives at the park.

Along with individual volunteers, local organizations host events at the gardens like the Floral Park recreation department’s gardening program, local school districts, the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and more. They also work with charities like the Hance Foundation, which hosted their 15th 5K at the park in May.

Park benches, scenic overlooks, irrigation systems, a wooden walking bridge, a waterfall and walking paths have been completed over the years with the countless volunteers, donations and community support.

“The future progress of Centennial Gardens depends, however, upon the continued support and assistance of the entire Floral Park community,” stated on FPGarden.org. “Please become a part of this worthy cause. Come join your neighbors!”

If you want to donate money or volunteer at the Centennial Gardens, click the “Contact Us” tab on FPGarden.org.