In recent months, improvements have been made to numerous parks throughout the City of Elmira, from new playground equipment to removing grafitti. As our Bill Mich tell us, Elmira has continued sprucing up its public spaces by making Brick Pond Park a little greener.

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ELMIRA, N.Y. -- Last summer, it was a combination of city workers and volunteers who helped build a brand new playground at Brick Pond Park. Elmira has continued to improve the parks throughout the city and Saturday, continued that effort by planting new trees at Brick Pond.

"This playground has quadrupled, probably 100 percent in terms of use. And it will provide much needed shade for more folks to come in," said Deputy Mayor Nykole Parks.

The planting was a part of the city's Arbor Day Celebration. A grant received from the State Department of Environmental Conservation allowed for the ceremony and the new trees to be planted. And as Elmira works to bring positive changes to its parks, planting new trees and getting a littler greener is a great option, the city just needs some people to step up and help.

"I believe there are a lot of resources out here, in this community, expertise that just needs to be tapped," said Jim Bagley, a DEC Forester.

Saturday, the volunteers weren't exactly experts, but their heart was in the right place. A group of students from Diven Elementary took time from their weekend to spruce up their community park.

"It's going to help the environment. More oxygen. Better places. And more good stuff for the town," said Melvin Martin, a fifth grader at Diven.

The city's ultimate goal is to restore many of the parks to their former glory.

"We don't have a necessarily huge budget to do so but we're been able to engage residents around the parks to help us decide and try to develop a master plan, long-range plan, for what we'd like to see in the park over the years to come," said Parks.

But until the funding becomes available, it will be up to volunteers like the Diven Elementary students to pitch in on projects like planting trees to make a difference.