Woman's Club of Tenafly Teams Up to Assist Riverkeeper, NJ Youth Corps

Provides field trip for Newark-based summer enrichment program

 

Thanks to the generosity of the Woman's Club of Tenafly, a dozen young people from Newark were treated to an Eco-Cruise on the Hackensack River in June and the opportunity to learn about the natural world from an up-close and personal perspective.

 

"Early this year, the Woman's Club of Tenafly contacted us and asked if they could help provide a quality educational experience for a deserving inner-city school or educational program," said Program Director Hugh Carola. "When the folks from the New Jersey Youth Corps called a couple of months later, I knew we had the perfect match."

 

The New Jersey Youth Corps is a year-round program designed for young adults between the ages of 16 and 25, who have left high school before graduating. The Youth Corps provides them with a second chance to earn their diplomas while helping them develop employment skills through meaningful community service.

 

After arriving at Laurel Hill County Park in Secaucus, the students - some of whom were taking their very first trip aboard a boat - were treated to an Eco-Cruise on the Hackensack River and through the marshes of the New Jersey Meadowlands. The group observed large numbers of herons, waterfowl and other birds juxtaposed with scenes of the lower river's industrial past. One amazing view was of a flock of twelve Black-crowned Night Herons (a State-listed Threatened Species) roosting on the remains of a barge dock at the old Standard Chlorine site in Kearny - one of the region's most contaminated areas.

 

"That's the kind of thing that makes our trips so interesting," explained Carola. "It's the opportunity to see the sublime and the ridiculous in the same place at the same time."

 

Ever since the founding of Hackensack Riverkeeper by Captain Bill Sheehan in 1997, our multifaceted mission has always included the delivery of quality environmental education programs to students of all ages and situations. Of particular concern to us are young people who rarely get the chance to experience nature and see the world without the constraints of concrete, steel and glass.

 

"I especially enjoy working with inner city students and introducing them to the natural world - their natural world," added Carola. "It's also a privilege to work with dedicated educators like the Youth Corps folks and our good friends from the Woman's Club of Tenafly."

 

Originally, two dozen students were scheduled for the June trip but flooding along the Delaware River kept the Phillipsburg, NJ contingent from participating. Unfortunate as that situation was, because of it, we still have half of the Club's donation available to underwrite an Eco-Cruise or Combination program for an inner-city group next season. If you know of a deserving group (or if you would like more information about underwriting Eco-Programs), please contact Hugh Carola at 201-968-0808 or via email at Hugh@HackensackRiverkeeper.org