Culminating a months-long planning process, the 2003 Make A Difference Day at the Garden City Bird Sanctuary was a highly successful event that brought over 125 volunteers to participate. Thanks to the superlative efforts of President Rob Alvey, truckloads of perennial plants, shrubs and trees were generously donated by Fury Landscaping of Garden City South, Atlantic Nursery in Freeport and H.R. Talmage Nursery in Riverhead. Alvey summed it up nicely: "Once these nurseries heard about the work our volunteers are doing and the progress we've made as the pilot program with using Nassau County's sumps as a community nature preserve, they were more than generous in supporting our efforts."

Alvey continued, saying, "Sig and Kristen Fiele of Atlantic Nursery in Freeport were generous. They also supported us last year and have helped many local groups. Sal of Fury Landscaping personally brought two truckloads of donated evergreens along with delivering the tri-colored beech tree we'd ordered in memory of our late director and friend, Jim Zacharias. Ellen Talmage was also fantastic. H.R. Talmage Nursery donated an entire van of assorted native plants, including many Prairie and Virginia Rose plants to finish landscaping Cedar Hill. We had the materials, we had the volunteers and we were blessed with good weather. It really makes a difference," he said.

Make A Difference Day started early with nearly 20 volunteers from Chaminade High School's Emmaus volunteer community service club. Under the direction of Bird Sanctuary directors Russ Miller and Tom Martens, they cleared and pruned many areas and laid nearly 300 feet of cobblestone curbing for a new trail - Jim Zacharias Way. Early on Oct. 25, an earth science class from Kingsborough Community College had a three-hour walking tour and lecture, then the gates opened for groups of students from Sacred Heart Academy and the Garden City High School Key Club. Directors June Fay and John Cronin helped sign in volunteers and coordinate activities while Rob and Suzie Alvey photographed the event and moved plants to their new homes. Several Cub and Girl Scout troops also participated, bring flowering bulbs, small plants and pine cone bird feeders.

The afternoon was filled with volunteers, young and old. Michael Cassandra helped a Cub Pack move wood chips for mulching new plants. The entire Ridgway family pitched in to plant some of the evergreens along Jim Zacharias Way. Ray Finnerty helped clean around some of the trees and plant asters with some of the children. Elna Kearns brought several of her friends to weed a patch near the gate. George Rodman and his son, Dean, helped plant new grasses in the Hempstead Plains. Steve Priest, who completed an Eagle Scout project at the site several years ago and is currently a Hofstra student, spent the day filming a news broadcast for an upcoming Hofstra University TV show - FYI.

Nearly 800 bulbs, four trees, 14 shrubs and 150 perennial plants were added to the landscape by the end of the day. The volunteers were amazed at how dramatically different the Bird Sanctuary looked with the new fencing, gate and maturing landscape added during the last few years. The volunteers were given copies of the new 80-page Guidebook to the Garden City Bird Sanctuary as directors thanked them for their efforts.