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Meeting Recaps + Information>
April SWM Monthly Meeting Recap
April 28, 2008
Memorandum
To: Sustainable West Milford Participants
From: Katie Hayes-Natale, secretary
Re: Meeting Recap from 4/28/08
Date: 5/6/08
Greetings!
Our next meeting will be on Monday, May 19th (due to
Memorial Day weekend) – at the Hillcrest Community Center
from 7p-9p in Room 8. The agenda is posted below.
First and foremost, we would like to extend a warm welcome
to our new participants!
Bernie Stapleton, who joined us to get out of the
rain…among other musical reasons – Music at the Mission
Michelle, who joined us from Music at the Mission
Kathleen Caren, who joined us to learn about GreenFest
Harvey Zanger, who is just a sucker for radical causes
Eric Vitale, who is from Butler High School, a friend of
Heather H., and a GreenFest volunteer.
Here are the results from our meeting:
Project Updates:
WM High School Environmental Club – The Green Team was
frustrated about the recycling situation, or lack of
recycling, at the High School. They talked to everyone –
surveyed students, teachers, the janitors – to find out why
there was no recycling. They discovered that there was
little awareness about the importance of recycling; there
are no receptacles in classrooms and no recycling dumpster.
The Green Team has created receptacles for classrooms and
has lined up everything needed in the building. Now it is
up to the School Board to do something about the dumpster
situation.
The Green Team presented to the Board of Education last
week on Tuesday, April 29th. They spoke about the
recycling situation in the High School and their ideas on
fixing it. Their presentation was well put together and
all who spoke did a great job. Even though Glenn Kamp, the
superintendent of WM schools, said he would be at the
meeting he was not. The students decided they will be
moving forward with their plans to bring recycling into the
High School as best they can, proving how important and
needed it really is. Way to go Green Team!
Also, a High School student, Jordan, is interested in
working with young kids to create sustainable awareness.
This is an effort SWM will try to help with.
In addition, the April edition of the The Highland Echo,
the WM High School newspaper had a two page “Think Green”
spread (and an ad for GreenFest!).
NJ Learns Leadership Program – This program trains
community teams who are interested in developing their
community’s ability to shift toward sustainability. The
program focuses on working with children and young adults,
K-12, to create educational opportunities and programs in
their communities. Dave Watson-Hallowell, Katie
Hayes-Natale, and Alice Courage form the SWM team that has
been accepted into this program and begin training the end
of May. This program is sponsored by the Cloud Institute
of Sustainability Education.
WM Library – The WM Library has requested SWM help in
presenting a sustainability program this summer for kids in
their summer program. We are exploring way to contribute
to the library program.
501(c)(3) – Our tax exemption paperwork is back in action.
After help from the IRS, Dave believes we should be good to
go!
At this point in the meeting Dave shared his new
philosophy, especially when working on SWM projects…”Ask
for help when you need it”! This statement became the
theme of the evening, reminding us all to ask for help when
we need it!
Thank you – Dave & Wendy asked Suzie Blodgett, Joe Natale,
Jade Fiskaa, Renee Allessio, and Katie Hayes-Natale to
stand for a round of applause at the meeting. They thanked
this group for all of their hard work in putting GreenFest
together and making it happen in such a short time period!
Also, they thanked Katie for volunteering to be the SWM
secretary and helping out to do some of the work -
lightening Dave & Wendy’s load.
Community Garden – The Community Garden Opening is this
Saturday, May 10th at 10am-1pm. There will be local
farmers selling organic seedlings, eggs, sheepskins, and
more. There will be a presentation on growing mushrooms, a
communal planting of the Three Sisters – a short companion
planting talk, the unveiling of our new water powered water
pump, and one of our members will conclude the event
playing the crystal bowls. Hope to see you there!
The weather is supposed to be dry on Saturday. If the
weather changes and the event needs to be cancelled there
will be a cancellation notice on the SWM website. You can
log onto www.sustainablewestmilford.org on Saturday morning
if there is heavy rain and/or thunder & lightening.
Here is the revised schedule for the Garden Opening:
? 10am start – seedling & farm stand sale
? 10:30am – Katie’s talk & Joe unveils ramp pump
? 11:00am – Three Sisters companion planting
? 11:45am – AJ Bozenmayer presentation on growing mushrooms
? After 12:30pm – Jill Michel plays crystal bowls
Our next Garden meeting is on Wednesday, May 14th. The
meeting will be held at Hillcrest Community Center on
Macopin Road, WM - 7:00pm in room 8. Our guest speaker is
Celeste Stapleton, a Master Gardener, who will be talking
to us about Organic Garden pest control. Our Garden
meetings are open to the public. Hope to see you there and
bring a friend.
We had a tremendous amount of help in the Community Garden
from some local businesses… (Ask for help when you need
it!) Michael Bartyzel, the nephew of Garden member, Susan
Zangara, helped us till our entire back and side field!
Michael works for Bobcat and was able to have a giant
tilling Bobcat dropped off at the Garden. On Saturday
April 26th he spent the better part of the day tilling, a
job that would have taken us weeks to do by hand! A huge
Thank you to Michael and Bobcat! We also had help from
Norma Bozenmayer’s husband, Kurt, as well as Marshall Hill
Lumber, in transporting composted manure to the Garden. We
now have several heaping piles!
Pizza Tasting Contest – We are having our second annual
Pizza Tasting Contest on Sunday, July 13th. More details
about the event will be discussed at the next SWM meeting.
If you are interested in helping to organize this event
please contact Katie Hayes-Natale at
crazyhayes_wm@yahoo.com or 201-819-8951.
State Parks – As many of you know the Governor is looking
to close several of the local state parks, including
Ringwood State Park and High Point State Park. Shepherd’s
Lake is already closed for this summer! We had a petition
out at GreenFest and will be dropping copies at Harvest
Moon – please stop by and sign this petition. We were told
that the most effective way of protesting the closing of
the state parks is through letter writing. Please take a
few minutes and write a letter of your protest/outrage to
the Governor’s office. You can send the letters to:
Office of the Governor
PO Box 001
Trenton, NJ 08625
SWM Website Message Board – On our SWM website there is a
General Message Board. Over the next several months we are
hoping to increase use of this message board in an effort
to bring SWM members into better contact with each other.
We have over 200 members and no way for them to connect,
other than monthly meetings or events. The message board
is a forum where any member can post questions/comments, or
start an online discussion. You can also reply to any
questions/comments other members have posed.
To join the message board is very simple:
1. log onto www.sustainablewestmilford.org
2. on left side menu click on General Message Board
3. in top right corner click on join message board
4. fill out required info
5. click to continue
6. now you can post new topics, questions/comments or reply
to other topics
Clean Up Day – Once again we tackled Highlander Drive this
year. You may be glad to hear that the mess was so much
less than last year…it seems our efforts have paid off.
Most of what was picked up this year was trash thrown out
of vehicle windows, although there were several bags of
school trash that had been dragged into the woods and
riffled through. Despite achieving our goal of getting
chains on the middle school dumpsters, we found the
dumpsters open with the chains hanging. Pictures were
taken and hopefully this will inspire the school to make
sure the chains are used! After cleaning up Highlander
Drive the troops moved to Bubbling Springs Park to clean up
before GreenFest. All in all it was a successful day of
cleaning!
Adopt-A-Spot Native Medicinal Garden – Things are a
blooming! Plants that were sown last year are starting to
come back up! The schedule for planting days for this year
will be announced at next month’s meeting and will also be
posted on the SWM website.
We have posted a weeding/watering schedule up on the
General Message Board on the SWM website. If you would
like to help out in the Medicinal Garden by weeding and
watering the beds, please log onto the General Message
Board, following the directions above, and sign up for a
week or two.
This is what is needed if you sign up for a week at the
Medicinal Garden: approximately 30-45 minutes to water and
weed the beds and then a few minutes at the end of your
week to post on the SWM website message board what got
done, and anything you noticed that needs doing, to help
the person who’s following you. (Guidance is available, if
needed, for web posting). Depending on the weather, 3 times
per week seemed to be about average last year. There are
rain barrels and buckets for watering and some small hand
tools for weeding on site. Extreme conditions could require
more visits. You will receive a map of the garden that
clearly shows the beds and the paths, and as the season
goes on, we’ll post color photos online of which plants are
the wild medicines. We’ll also post the list of volunteers.
If you see an opening you can fill, please do. Earlier in
the season, there’s more weeding, later, more watering.
The weeks go Sunday to Saturday.
Robin Rose Bennett, the Medicinal Garden Coordinator, also
extended a thank you to those who helped out on Sunday,
April 13th at the Garden’s first Clean up day. Beginning
in July Robin will lead talks at the Medicinal Garden once
a month. Renee Allessio will be creating a map to guide
all through watering and weeding.
This year we will be adding wild plants that are the
analogues of the endangered medicinal already in the
Garden. This will add an educational aspect to the
Medicinal Garden by teaching what common plants found in
your backyard can be used medicinally in place of the
endangered plants.
If you have any questions about the Medicinal Garden please
contact Robin Rose Bennett at robin@robinrosebennett.com.
Community Green – Dave & Joe are having a meeting with
Ariane Delafosse, the founder of Community Green – a
non-profit organization based in the Basking Ridge area.
They are meeting to discuss how our organizations can work
together and collaborate efforts.
Student Conservation Association – This is a national
organization that Dave & Wendy came across while at a
trustee weekend at the Rensselaerville Institute. The SCA
is “building the next generation of conservationist”. This
group has a wealth of resources and a large budget to work
with. They are currently working in Newark, NJ. We are
hoping to arrange an opportunity to work together.
Adopt-A-Spot/Roadside Adoption - the beautification
committee has a new set of guidelines for all
adopt-a-spots. If you are interested in adopting a spot or
already have a spot you can get the information at the
Recycling Center. Also, there are still recycling barrels
available to paint if anyone is interested. You can
contact the Recycling Center to get an application.
GreenFest -
The First Annual Highlands GreenFest was a terrific success
thanks to all of you! Much fun was had and much good was
done! The final program provided a wide variety of
opportunities for participants to learn about Living,
Protecting, and Enjoying the Green - and have fun doing it!
All who came left with new information, ideas, and energy
to live in more sustainable ways!
The musical program was absolutely perfect - the musicians
and their performances were truly present in the Spirit of
the First Annual Highlands GreenFest and their music came
through loud and clear throughout the park - all without a
hitch! A special thanks to all of you who worked so hard to
bring this essential element to the day. You provided the
Warmth and Sunshine on an other wise cold and cloudy day -
thank you!
Our exhibitors and presenters deserve a special thanks as
well. So much great new information and presented so well!
Participants got some new tools, ideas, and inspiration
because of your efforts. Despite the weather conditions,
your passion for what you do warmed all of us and your
commitment to being there was inspiring and gives us all
hope. Thanks!
It might have been cold but we didn't go hungry thanks to
the efforts of the Apshawa Volunteer Fire Company and their
community members that pitched in to cook and serve us hot
food, Lou Mutto from DeMarcos Pizzeria and Restaurant for
all the hot and delicious pizza, Popcorn from the Chamber,
and to the Rogowski Family Farms for their delicious
organic offerings from the garden!
For Sustainable West Milford, well, it was truly a
monumental effort to pull this off with a tremendous amount
of time, effort and money going into making it happen. To
all those who helped out throughout the course of this
event I sincerely thank you for your important contribution
to making the event a success! A very special thanks go out
to Suzie, the leader of this project, Jade, Joe, Renee,
Katie, and Wendy who put so much of their time and energy
into making it the great event that it was! It just
couldn't have happened without everyone pitching in with
the additional support of WM Community Services and
Recreation, Jeff from A Party Center, and the exhibitors
and all the other groups that came together to turn this
dream into a reality. The return on that investment was
very, very, good. At the end of the day, we did have fun
and we did do a great deal of good. And we did something
together that we can all be proud of. There were so many
positive comments and helpful suggestions that I am
confident next year will be even better!
But what really made the event so great were all the
individual efforts, and the hundreds of participants who
came out to attend the First Annual Highlands GreenFest -
in spite of the weather. Among them were many familiar
faces and many ones too. Many were from out of town,
looking to see what we are doing here and finding they want
to do the same thing in their communities. The high school
Environmental Club and Green Team was there to show their
support and to teach our youngest community members about
sustainable living. Several members of our town council and
the Mayor took the time to come out and show their support.
Together, all these people and groups combined to make a
powerful statement of support for what Sustainable West
Milford is doing here in our community. The fact that
everyone who attend walked away with new information,
ideas, energy, and desire to live in a more sustainable way
was most gratifying and rewarding.
Finally, many new friends were made and our Community grows
stronger and larger - "...and that is what the Highlands
GreenFest is all about, Charlie Brown."
Many Thanks to All - We look forward to seeing you all
again next year for the Second Annual Highlands GreenFest!!
Dave Watson-Hallowell
Next Month’s Agenda
Our next meeting is on Monday, May 19th – at the Hillcrest
Community Center from 7p-9p in Room 8. We will discuss
project updates, upcoming fundraisers, and hear from our
guest speaker, Tom Miezejeski from Hydro Coil Power. He
will be talking to us about water turbines.
We hope to see you there and feel free to bring a friend!
Please let us know if we missed or misrepresented anything
in this recap. If you have any questions or suggestions,
please give me a call at 201-819-8951.
Katie Hayes-Natale
secretary
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