Five Seeds of Wisdom from the Rutherford Community Teaching Garden

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Donna Drewes, Sustainable Jersey

When the Rutherford Green Team dreamed up the radical plan to create a community garden in the overgrown, littered vacant lot along the railroad tracks, most people thought it was crazy. The neighbors feared the garden would attract loiterers and thieves.

After over two years of hard work, that’s exactly what happened. Almost every day, people are loitering in the garden: members of the Scouts, the Garden Club, the Woman’s Club, the Green Team, the Shade Tree Committee and several sports teams are taking care of the garden. And as for thieves, the beautiful dahlia garden is too tempting, and a beautiful flower will sometimes go missing.

Sustainable Jersey Small Grants Now Available

On May 3, Sustainable Jersey joined officials from the public and private sector and local residents to celebrate the Rutherford Community Teaching Garden and to highlight new grant money available for similar municipal sustainability projects. With $200,000 from the PSEG Foundation, Sustainable Jersey will provide municipalities with grants for thirty-two projects that will help towns make communities more livable, environmentally friendly and prosperous.

Learn more about the 2012 Sustainable Jersey grants program and download an application here.

Rutherford was awarded a 2010 Sustainable Jersey Small Grant in the amount of $25,000 that allowed the town to complete Phase Two of its Community Teaching Garden Project. The garden provides the Rutherford Green Team and Sustainable Jersey with an impressive, functional and beautiful example of sustainable living in the Bergen County area as well as a multitude of sustainable growth and education opportunities for older adults, those with special needs and all of its residents.

5 Tips from the Rutherford Community Garden

1. Ask and Deliver What the Community Wants

In the planning stages, the Rutherford Green Team took the time to ask the community what they wanted in a community garden. Older adults asked for accessible raised planting tables to allow sit-down gardening. The Green Team used volunteers to build four dedicated raised garden beds using treecycled (wood from fallen trees) and purchased wood. The garden now supports a program of horticultural therapy that the older adults have embraced.

2. Collaborate

The Green Team collaborated with the Shade Tree Committee in the early planning stages. This resulted in the Shade Tree Committee planting a shade tree nursery adjacent to the garden. Over two hundred shade trees are in the ground and will be ready for Rutherford’s streets in a few years. Also, a ten session lecture and demonstration series on Sustainable Gardening Practices was done in the outdoor classroom in cooperation with the Bergen County Gardeners.

3. Dare to Be Innovative

Using the Sustainable Jersey grant, the Green Team installed ADA compliant recycled rubber sidewalks along the 140 foot length of the garden to allow wheelchair access to the entire site as well as to the four special raised garden beds dedicated for use by older adults and others with special needs. The municipality now provides transportation to the garden from the Senior Activity Center. The interlocking modular sidewalk paving system is a showcase for residential and municipal use of the recycled alternative paving material. It is tree friendly because it rises with tree roots, allowing for maintenance and care of the tree under the sidewalk. Due to the garden, Rutherford modified its construction code to allow the use of this new sidewalk product.

4. Demonstrate Sustainable Practices Like Water Conservation

A battery operated drip irrigation system was installed by volunteers. The drip irrigation, along with rain garden style planting and thick layers of treecycled mulch help to demonstrate methods of water conservation in a sustainable garden. The drip irrigation also sustains the shade tree nursery through dry weather periods.

5. Engage Volunteers and Don’t Waste their Time.

Since its beginning, the garden has enjoyed the good efforts of fifteen to twenty-five volunteers almost every Saturday. The garden has united several different community groups and organizations. The Scouts, the Garden Club, the Woman’s Club, the Green Team, Shade Tree Committee and several sports teams have all contributed. Rutherford has created a community center where people now gather to learn about gardening and composting and residents stop by on Saturdays with garden questions. Garden leaders try to give everyone who comes by an important job to do. The Green Team has learned that it is very important never to waste a volunteer’s time. Rutherford’s use of volunteer labor from the community multiplied the value of the Sustainable Jersey Small Grant, allowing the majority of funds to be expended on materials as most of the installations were completed by volunteers.

John Hughes, the Vice Chair of the Rutherford Green Team, is a founder and tireless champion of the garden. He said, “The Green Team began the Erie Street garden project as a way to make a difference in the lives of our residents. We wanted to demonstrate how volunteers, working together, can create a lovely new space that adds value to the community and enriches our lives.” Mission accomplished.

To date, $595,000 has been awarded through the 2009-2011 Sustainable Jersey Small Grants program. Eighty grants have been given to New Jersey municipalities representing 20 counties for sustainability projects. Rutherford is a shining example of the positive change that these grants can inspire across New Jersey.

Applications for the 2012 Sustainable Jersey Small Grants are due July 15, 2012.

For more about Sustainable Jersey®:
Website | Facebook | Twitter

Images courtesy Sustainable Jersey

Sustainable Jersey staff and partners are regular contributors to the Dodge blog

Posted in Sustainable Jersey | Tagged community gardens, Rutherford Green Team, teaching garden | Leave a comment

Taking Your Seat at the Table

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Ann Marie Miller, Executive Director, Art Pride NJ Foundation

If you missed Arts Day in Trenton on Thursday, you missed a great opportunity to get inspired and prepared to advocate the arts in ways you may not have thought about before. Not only did ArtPride NJ honor two exceptional New Jersey legislators for their outstanding efforts on behalf of the state’s non-profit arts industry, but we all learned that being citizen activists on the local level isn’t as intimidating as it appears.

Senator Tom Kean, Jr. And Assemblyman Matthew Milam accepted ArtPride’s 2012 Distinguished Arts Advocate Awards. Senator Kean noted, “I support the arts in New Jersey because they enrich every aspect of our communities: educationally, economically, and culturally.” Assemblyman Milam spoke about how much he learned about the arts by visiting a host of cultural venues throughout the state as Chairman of the Assembly Tourism and Arts Committee.

The Citizens Campaign offered Arts Day attendees simple ways to become more civically engaged on the local level, including tips to get appointed to local commissions, acting as a citizen legislator who can jump start action by proposing resolutions and ordinances, and reporting back to the community about that action or lack of action as a citizen journalist.

Finally, Janet Brown, Executive Director of Grantmakers in the Arts, inspired nearly 200 Arts Day attendees with her own personal insight into the values of government and how the arts need to address them—efficiency, effectiveness, accountability and equity with a simple direct and bold message to legislators and policy makers.

Feedback from attendees was overwhelmingly positive, noting how simple advocacy steps can help us reach our “big picture” goals, and realize change in measurable ways.

To stay informed about how YOU can assure the arts have a seat at the table, contact ArtPride New Jersey and become an active arts advocate today!

Poetry Friday: The Common Gathering

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Rebecca Gambale

Last Saturday, over 100 teachers from all over New Jersey came together at Princeton Day School for the culminating event of our poetry exploration sessions series, Giving Voice. The day is unlike any other professional development for teachers; it is a day to think deeply about what poetry means to each individual and how it affects one’s whole life, not just one’s teaching life. It is a non-academic day to explore and simply to be in the presence of poetry with like-minded peers.

The energy was high from the first moments of the day, and this enthusiasm was brought to sessions led by Dodge Poets on a wide variety of topics. The featured poet for the day was Gregory Orr. A gracious and generous reader, Orr told the audience that a powerful teacher had saved his life, and immediately acknowledged the gathering of educators as “his ideal audience.” (Psst…Orr will also be a Main Stage Festival Poet at the 2012 Festival if you weren’t able to see him last Saturday!)

Here are some highlights from the day (all photography by Lauren Rutten Photography):

Teachers are given a varied packet of poems for reading aloud in Giving Voice groups.

In small discussion groups, teachers shared their feelings about poems
from the packet, or poems that they have brought to share.

Participants took part in small group sessions in the form of conversations or writing activities. Here we see teachers incorporating yoga into writing about travel and place.

Featured reader Gregory Orr connects with the audience
in his first reading of two, in which he read his own work.

Orr’s second reading is of poems by others that matter to him.

Books by Gregory Orr and Dodge Poets were on sale at a discounted price so that teachers could add to their collections.

Posted in Poetry, Poetry in the Schools | Tagged 2012 dodge poetry festival, clearing the spring, dodgepoetryfest, giving voice, gregory orr, princeton day school, tending the fountain | Leave a comment

Why Civility Matters to the Social Sector

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Nina Stack, President, Council of New Jersey Grantmakers

Next month, members of New Jersey’s social sector will gather for a conversation that some might think an unusual topic for nonprofits and foundations – civility. It is, however, a critical discussion for our sector.

Over the years, the loss of civility in our society has been spreading like a slow-moving cancer. Growing undetected and weakening our communities, our relationships, our democracy. For the social sector – mission-driven organizations — the implications of this sickness are profound and debilitating.

Consider those working to improve education outcomes for our children. If students are trying to learn and mature in an environment with hostility and bullying, then the cards are stacked against them in a very real and tangible sense. How can one explore, imagine or participate when fearing ridicule? And now, with the explosion of social media, bullying has expanded from the schoolyard to the home.

Consider the service provider suddenly caught in the buzz saw of slanderous rhetoric used by media pundits who manufacture a “wedge issue” to gain attention and feed the 24-hour news cycle. The nonprofit, with limited capacity and a client base who depends on them for services, now scrambles to respond. Donors flee. And the critical services and the clients who need them suffer.

Consider the need to solve the serious problems – the wicked problems — our communities and country face. To address these issues, it means policymakers have to come together. They must negotiate and compromise. Without civility, without an appreciation of other points of view and a commitment to find the shared path – change at the policy level becomes impossible. The polarization of our government leaders means a paralyzed democracy.

On June 15th, the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers’ Spring Colloquium will explore this issue during our 3rd Biennial Conversation on the Social Sector – From Schoolyard Bullying and Culture Wars to a Polarized Democracy: What Role Can Philanthropy Play in Restoring Civility to our Society?

A vibrant group of participants will bring diverse perspectives on this topic for what promises to be a dynamic conversation. Chris Satullo, Vice President of News and Civil Dialogue at WHYY will moderate the discussion between Cathy Raphael, Chair of the Ms. Foundation for Women; K. Anthony Appiah Ph.D., Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University; and David Bornstein, author of How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas. The range of our panelists’ varied experiences, backgrounds and professional vocations is sure to stimulate and inspire our conversation.

Thoughtful discussion and civil discourse is how we as a nation problem-solve and reach conclusions. When conversations are skewed by “my-way-or-the highway” mentalities, or an unwillingness to hear what another is saying, our civil discourse evaporates and collectively we suffer.

I invite you to join the conversation at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick for what is sure to be a fascinating and much needed discussion. The event is open to the public and details can be found at www.cnjg.org.

Nina Stack is the President of Council of New Jersey Grantmakers, the statewide association for corporate, family, independent, and community foundations. She is a regular contributor to the Dodge blog.

Image courtesy CNJG

Posted in Philanthropy | Tagged Council of New Jersey Grantmakers | Leave a comment

Kickstarter Campaign of the Month: ARTWORKS’ Art All Night 2012 Iron Pour

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Molly de Aguiar, Director of Communications

In 2007, Dodge grantee ARTWORKS launched “Art All Night,” which is a twenty-four hour visual and performing arts festival in Trenton. Several Dodge staff have attended and raved about the festival (see Michele Russo’s 2011 review here and Michelle Knapik’s 2010 experience here). We look forward to attending again this June.

Through Kickstarter, ARTWORKS is hoping to bring back their Iron Pour for the 2012 Art All Night event. With 13 days left to fund it, they are 62% of the way to their $4,000 goal. Want to help them cross the finish line? Read more about the campaign below, and visit their Kickstarter page for a video of their 2010 iron pour and to pledge your support.

“The Art All Night-Trenton 2012 Iron Pour once again reunites the forces of Art All Night – Trenton with the AbOmInOg Intl. Arts Collective, who first worked with Art All Night in 2010. That year, the crew from AbOmInOg Intl. amazed spectators by forging steel live throughout the night, as one-story-high orange flames enveloped Trenton’s urban backdrop. This year’s Art All Night-Trenton festival marks the second historic collaboration between these two dynamic art forces as they once again bring the mesmerizing art of a live iron pour to inner-city Trenton.

Your donation to this Kickstarter campaign will ensure AbOmInOg Intl. can once again thrill onlookers with their unique craft at Art All Night-Trenton 2012. Those who pledge, will walk away with an incredible, newly-forged and fresh-from-the-flames commemorative medallion that will actually be created at Art All Night – Trenton as you, and thousands of onlookers, watch it all happen right before your eyes.”

To support the campaign or learn more about Art All Night and ARTWORKS:

Art All Night is June 16 and 17 (3pm to 3pm) at the historic Roebling Wireworks in Trenton.

See Dodge’s curated Kickstarter page here.

Posted in Arts, Kickstarter | Tagged Art All Night, Artworks Trenton, Iron pour | Leave a comment

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