Following the Commissioner’s encouraging and flattering statements, the program moved to the recognition of this year’s Friends of the Hackensack River ceremony.  After the awards ceremony, Andy Willner, the NY/NJ Baykeeper, facilitated the live auction.  As part of the auction, several HRI programs and many very generous products and services from individuals and companies were put on the block. 

The Event Planning Committee, Board of Trustees and staff of Hackensack Riverkeeper wish to thank everybody that came, contributed and donated to the awards ceremony which doubled as a fundraising effort for our operations and programs.  The evening’s activities brought in about $18,000 which will be put toward next year’s education, outreach, advocacy and enforcement endeavors.  And believe it or not, plans are already underway for next year’s event. See you there!

Renaming of Environmental Scholarship

As part of his opening remarks, Capt. Bill announced that our Environmental Scholarship for high school seniors will be renamed the Ron Vellekamp Environmental Scholarship to honor our recently deceased Board of Trustees member who also selflessly served his community and the people of New York and New Jersey for most of his life.

Friend of the Hackensack River - John Zuzeck has been an Inspector for the Northern Bureau of Water Compliance and Enforcement of the NJDEP since 1991.  Whenever we receive a call on our Watershed Watch Hotline (1-877-CPT-BILL), we call John. He has delivered “hundreds of Notices of Violation (NOVs) to individuals, businesses and municipalities” for various infractions of antipollution laws.  He also works with the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife as a game warden.  Captain Bill refers to John as one of the state’s most conscientious civil servants.

Friend of the Hackensack River - Richard F. Dwyer is a 20-year employee of Public Service Electric and Gas and currently serves as the regional public affairs manager for Bergen and Hudson Counties.  As an angler, he and his father used to travel to the Jersey Shore for the good fishing; yet there were two rivers within walking distance from his Jersey City home.  Rich has dedicated the past 25 years of his life to environmental initiatives so that he and his son can go fishing in the Hackensack and the Hudson Rivers.

Friend of the Hackensack River - John R. Quinn brings more than 35 years of experience as an artist, writer and naturalist to his position as the self-proclaimed “bugs-and-bunnies guy” at the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.  He leads tours for the NJMC, builds exhibits across the United States and Canada, and one of his eleven books on science and nature, “Fields of Sun and Grass,” won the American Littoral Society’s Conservation Achievement Award in 1998.  He was among the original Trustees of Hackensack Riverkeeper in 1997.

Outstanding Volunteer Award - Lisa Gainsborough Ryan has a long history of fighting for human rights; most recently, she has taken up the cause for clean natural resources.  Under the auspices of Hackensack Riverkeeper, Lisa now recruits other volunteers and organizes river clean-ups in many sections of the watershed.  She also assists the HRI staff with the canoe project, and many other special events.  Because of her interminable willingness to help and because of her exceptional accomplishments to date, this award will be renamed the Lisa G. Ryan Outstanding Volunteer Award.

Special Recognition Award – Fairleigh Dickinson University, Metropolitan Campus provided Hackensack Riverkeeper with its first office during its formative years.  In 1997, when the invitation came from Dr. Irwin Isquith at FDU, Captain Bill moved the operation of HRI from his dining room table to a University campus.  From Becton Hall, Captain Bill and HRI build a solid and respectable foundation in the watershed.  Today, we thank the administration and the friends that we met at FDU for helping us grow to our present status as the leader in preserving our watershed.

Three decades ago, our government promised us clean, plentiful and biologically productive rivers, lakes, and coastal waters.  The goals set forth in the Act specifically state that pollution discharged to water should be eliminated by 1985 and that all national waters will be “fishable and swimable” by 1983. 

While these goals have not yet been met, Hackensack Riverkeeper still believes in the intrinsic value of a clean and safe environment for our kids and for our communities.  Using the Clean Water Act as leverage, we and our network of fellow conservationists and legal councilors, take polluters and developers to court and make them pay for damaging what rightly belongs to all of us and to future generations—our natural resources.

To honor the anniversary of one of the strongest environmental laws ever passed, Hackensack Riverkeeper served up a birthday cake for desert at our award ceremony and benefit auction.