Recently, I traveled there to attend the opening of PS41 Greenwich Village School’s green roof. The historic area of Greenwich Village is an area that I have visited before, but had never experienced through this particular lens: I saw kids living in a pavement world. I saw parents walking their kids to school every morning down 7^th Ave. with taxis rushing by. I saw kids eating their breakfast while their moms and dads hustled them across busy streets.

None of this is really a surprise—I know that kids grow up in big cities—but what I didn’t really stop to ever think about, was, well…the obvious: what it really means for kids to grow up in big cities. 

I do not have kids of my own, but I do have a one-year-old niece, and seeing New York this way really made me think about how this was a normal day for these kids. I couldn’t imagine growing up in the city, and all I kept asking myself as I stood by and watched the morning commute was, “Where do these kids play? Where do they venture out for that ‘green escape’ for the afternoon?”

At PS41, I found my answer: There’s no room on the ground? No problem! We’ll put it on the roof.

PS41′s green roof. Greenwich Village, New York City.

PS41 is packed between shops, parking garages and sky scrapers, but the kids that I saw on that roof had escaped from the pavement and hustle of the New York I had always known. I too, found myself not wanting to leave the roof.

We didn’t want to leave its beauty! PS41′s green roof, September 2012.

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My green roof Halloween costume, inspired by the green roof at PS41 in New York City

I emailed our friends at PS41 this morning to see how they were doing after Hurricane Sandy. Science teacher Joaquin Rodriguez said they were without power still, and could not visit the school to see how it is doing, but we’re hopeful they will be back in the next week. We’re thinking about them!!!

I was so inspired by my visit to see the green roof at PS41 last month, that I dedicated my Halloween costume to their courageous and inspiring efforts.

How did I make the costume?

Here’s the materials that went into my costume:

• My husband donated two pairs of gray work pants that had patches, which I cut up and sewed into the stone walls of the school.
• The windows are used plastic bags.
• The green fabric was part of a tent my son destroyed after much playing.
• The leaves are made from Lindt chocolate wrappers (from a thank you gift that my co-worker Pat gave me) and Fruit-a-Bu fruit leather packages, cut into leaf shapes and glued on to  green twist ties.
• The flat part on my shoulders is made from a piece of cardboard, reinforced by two wooden dowels.

My costume won in the recycled category here at National Wildlife Federation’s Halloween costume contest!

For information on past year’s recycled costumes, check out my recycled Halloween costume blogs.

• My Double Rainbow costume
• My green Halloween costumes over the years

Inspire My Next Costume

Learn more about becoming an Eco-School like PS41!