Information about our project partnership in June. We'd like to really make this a community-wide effort to prepare for Art All Night. Please share with everyone who would be interested in this event!

The Island's Sense of Place

You're looking at the smiling faces of about one third of our volunteer group from Saturday. Volunteers from A Better Way, Foundation Academy, The Island Civic Association, and Big Brothers, Big Sisters, arrived in Trenton's beautiful Stacy Park, along the Delaware River at 9:00am on Saturday morning. The park had been ravaged by numerous floods and most of all, Hurricane Sandy, which littered branches and sticks throughout the tree-lined park. As always, I asked our co-organizer (the president of the Island Civic Association) to explain a bit about the history of the park. Bernard spoke about how the pond in the middle of the park was used as a log repository when logging was a large industry in the northern regions of Pennsylvania and New Jersey during the nineteenth century. The aptly named "Log Basin" was tied in with the adjacent Delaware Rivers and nearby canal systems to form the transportation network which took raw materials from the north down to the developing areas around Philadelphia, including Trenton. At the northern reach of the park, there stands an old metal structure with a large cable and pulleyss attached to it. This was apparently part of a ferry which helped move Scout troops and others across the river to an island which contained a campsite.

What struck me most about this place was its feeling of time-invested landscaping and of friendly community. Almost every house on Riverside Drive in The Island neighborhood has large, prolific, old gardens full of classy flowers and greenery. Beyond that, we could see that some residents even forayed their gardening habits into city-owned land along the Delaware. As we walked up the street looking for litter and debris, one neighbor noticed our presence and what we were doing and immediately offered us some much-appreciated water. He explained how thankful he and the rest of the community was for the work we were doing for the neighborhood, and mentioned that he was responsible for some the gardening on the public land across the street. The experience showed me the sense of place and community which is what makes the Island so great.

Announcing our Saturday of Service for May:

Bring your boots if you have them. At least some of us will be wading into the shallows of the Log Basin to clean out some branches, logs, debris, and litter.

IN OTHER NEWS:

After discussions with the mentoring groups about service projects for the month of June, we have decided to support CARE Trenton's efforts to clean up and landscape the neighborhood around Roebling Market in preparation for Art All Night. The event is set to take place on June 1 at 9:00am. More on that effort and Art All Night in another post.