Saturday, May 14th started as a normal “MY PARKS DAY” project for the Juniper Juniors. The plan was to plant some new flowers and do some raking and sweeping at the park.

While raking in the western end of the park, just south of the park house near Brennan Field, the Juniors uncovered a boulder with a distinct carving of what we now believe is a griffin (a mythical animal typically having the head, forepart, and wings of an eagle and the body, hind legs, and tail of a lion).

Well, the youngsters were mesmerized. Where did the boulder come from? How did the carving get there? How old is it? When did it get there? Is it at all possible that this is actually a meteorite that struck the park long ago? And that an artist from some far-away planet carved the griffin as a message to us earthlings? One Parks Department employee said that he first saw the boulder about eight years ago, but was unable to learn anything about it. Do any of you readers have any information?

Finally, we were able to get the kids to complete the planting and cleanup. They did a great job as usual. The Parks Department was completely prepared for us with all the plants and equipment we needed. Special thanks to Helen Ho of Partnership for Parks who worked so hard to make this day a success for the Juniper Juniors. Helen will be helping the Juniors to participate in many more projects at Juniper Park, including other flower plantings and cleanups, as well as a dream of little Erin Krebs, a charter member of the Juniors, to plant a tree in the park dedicated to the Juniper Juniors.

The youngsters want to revive the idea of helping our elderly neighbors with gardening chores. Helen Ho is very happy to train the kids in performing this community service. Any readers who need this help or know someone who needs this help, contact the Civic Association so we can start this project.

The kids also want to arrange to make visits to the shut-ins at the various nursing homes in the community. Contact us if you have ideas.