---
title: Don’t Know What You Got ’Til It’s Green
date: 2022-09-19T05:30:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/dont-know-what-you-got-til-its-green"
section: Articles
---
# Don’t Know What You Got ’Til It’s Green

*September 19, 2022* — by [Sala Levin ’10](/author/sala-levin-10)


> Volunteers Turn Parking Spaces Into Mini Park for Park(ing) Day

*Parking Day 09162022 SC 8393 1920x1080 — Gabrielle Shelton ’23 (left) and Kennedy Thomas ’24 play life-size Jenga on Friday in a temporary mini park set up in metered spots outside Queen Anne’s Hall. The event was part of international Park(ing) Day, which encourages participants to turn parking spaces into public parks. Below, Isabella Socha Soares ’25 learns about the role parks can play in reducing urban heat islands.*

Blue skies, a warm (but not scorching) sun and just the right touch of crispness in the air practically begged Terps to leave their study carrels, offices and residence halls on Friday and rejoice in the pleasure of being outside. A new, and temporary, mini park on campus offered the community the ideal place to indulge in the September splendor.

Its location? A block of parking spots on Preinkert Drive, just outside Queen Anne’s Hall.

As part of the global Park(ing) Day initiative, which encourages people to temporarily repurpose curbside parking spaces as parks, UMD’s Department of Transportation Services’ BikeUMD, the campus’ student chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), the Student Planning Association and Terps for Bike Lanes turned the metered spaces into a space where people could sip coffee, play cornhole and learn about the important role public parks play in communal well-being.

“It’s about showing how we can interact with the space differently than (we) typically would,” said McKenzie Fei ’23, vice president of UMD’s ASLA chapter.

Playing on a café theme, organizers sold coffee and doughnuts, offered secondhand art and design books donated by UMD Libraries and set up games like life-size Jenga and cornhole. (Funds raised went toward covering the costs of an ASLA trip to a San Francisco conference.) Artificial turf turned the pavement into a grassy oasis, and DOTS invited guests looking for a smoothie to hop on their Bike Blender, a stationary bicycle that powers the kitchen accessory.


*student reads info about reducing urban heat islands*




**Topics:** [Campus & Community](https://today.umd.edu/tags/campus-community)


**Tags:** [Urban Studies and Planning](https://today.umd.edu/topic/urban-studies-and-planning)


**Units:** [College of Agriculture and Natural Resources](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-agriculture-and-natural-resources), [Department of Transportation Services](https://today.umd.edu/topic/department-transportation-services), [School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation](https://today.umd.edu/topic/school-architecture-planning-and-preservation)