Special Collections Receives Parkway Partners Records
Special Collections is honored to have been selected by Parkway Partners as the permanent home for its records. In response to massive budget cuts to the City of New Orleans Department of Parks and Parkways, in 1982 Flo Schornstein, the department’s director, created Parkway Partners as a volunteer support group. The 501(c)(3) organization was dedicated to improving the quality of life in New Orleans through the preservation, maintenance, and beautification of neutral grounds, green spaces, playgrounds, parks, community gardens, and the urban forest. As a public/private partnership with the City’s Department of Parks and Parkways, it became a national model for similar public/private partnerships throughout the country. Parkway Partners began work with an “adopt a neutral ground” program. Its projects eventually grew to include a “2nd Saturday” workshop on gardening; “Tree Troopers,” a program to educate New Orleanians on trees and the city’s urban forest; seed libraries that off