Volunteer

National Public Lands Day – September 27, 2014

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National Public Lands Day 2014National Public Lands Day began in 1994 when approximately 700 volunteers helped to maintain 3 sites. Last year was the 20th anniversary and 175,000 volunteers cleaned up 2,237 sites.

Although this began as a way to help Federal parks, the state and local parks are joining in! If you are looking for a volunteer opportunity, I’ve listed a few here. And if you don’t want to clean up, all of the National Parks are offering free admission so feel free to enjoy what they offer.

  • National Public Lands Day at Wharton State Forest
  • National Estuaries Day Hike & Clean Up
  • National Public Lands Day in Woodbridge Township
  • National Public Lands Day Volunteer Session at Mapleton Preserve
    • 2pm – 4pm
    • Bring your rake or shovel, sturdy shoes and hat
    • Mapleton Preserve is at the D & R Canal State Park Headquarters
    • 145 Mapleton Road, Kingston (NOTE: GPS/Mapquest will give wrong address)
    • (609) 683-0483
    • fpnl.org

Volunteer – Clean Up Your Neighborhood

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Here are a few ideas for cleaning up your neighborhood.

  • Beach Sweeps – Clean Ocean Action is an non-profit organization that helps clean up ocean pollution on the coastline of NJ. Each year, they hold Beach Sweeps where volunteers clean up and log each piece of litter (they collect this info for an annual report). These sweeps are open to anyone of any age. Religious organizations, businesses, scouts, schools, government agencies and civic groups all participate in the biannual sweeps. Although it’s called “Beach Sweep, it’s not just for the shore . . . sweeps can happen along rivers throughout the state.   Check out their website for more details. www.cleanoceanaction.org
  • Earth Day is a great way to join in a global event and take care of the environment. Click this link for more details. njcubscoutmom.wordpress.com/2014/08/18/earth-day-how-to-play-in-mud-with-friends-help-the-neighborhood/
  • National Park Service has several volunteer opportunities including an Adopt-a-Trail Program. If you go to Volunteer.gov portal and search the state of NJ, you will get a list of parks that have current opportunities. Click on the “More Info” button for the park near your town and you’ll see details about the job and how to contact the park ranger. Or you can search the National Park Service website:   www.nps.gov/getinvolved/volunteer.htm  Both websites will give you different opportunities.
  • Neighborhood Clean Up – Coordinate with your Mayor or the Public Works department and clean up a park, waterway, or school in your neighborhood. Our mayor loved the opportunity to meet the scouts and he even pitched in and helped clean up for a little while. At a council meeting, he would praise the boys for their efforts by giving them an award to take home and display. The boys loved it. Once they even received a Key to the City.
  • NJ Clean Communities is an organization that reduces the litter in the state through several different programs. These include Adopt-a-Beach, Adopt-a-Highway, Adopt-a-Station, Urban Cleanup, and Slam Dunk the Junk. For more information about these programs, go to their website. www.njclean.org

 

Note that this will satisfy any one of the following requirements:

  • Wolf Achievement 7 – Your Living World (G)
  • Bear Achievement 6 – Take Care of Your Planet (D)
  • Bear Elective 15 – Water and Soil Conservation (#5)
  • Webelos – Naturalist (#12)
  • Webelos – Outdoorsman (#6)
  • Citizenship Belt Loop (#3)
  • Wildlife Conservation Pin (#8 and/or #9)
  • Outdoor Ethics Action Award for Cub Scouts (#5)
  • Cub Scout World Conservation Award (Wolf, Bear, Webelos)

 

Earth Day: How to play in mud with friends & help the neighborhood!

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I love scouting because it teaches kids about the outdoors — how to survive in it, how to respect it, how to maintain it. Every Cub Scout rank has a requirement where the boys participate in a volunteer or clean-up activity. Over the years, I’ve become a champion for Earth Day as a way to show how one scout can make a difference on a global scale.

By participating in an Earth Day event, the boys can learn responsibility to their environment while working towards a badge. They make a direct impact on their neighborhood. They also learn that people around the world are doing the same thing on the same day.

Of course, it always seemed to rain on our Pack’s clean-up day. It was cold so we’d have urns filled with hot chocolate and coffee. The adults would grumble about the weather but not the boys. Playing with friends for a couple of hours in the mud was awesome! When the kids having fun, cleaning up the litter on Earth Day didn’t seem like a chore.  The boys were always shocked when we piled up all the bags into a “Trash Mountain” at the end of our day.

The NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has a terrific website and there’s a program devoted to the annual Earth Day.   It’s called “NJ SEEDS” – NJ State Environmental Education Directory Site.

If you’re searching for volunteer hours, you can find local opportunities on the SEEDS site. There’s info and contact information to help you get started.

Is your Pack (or your hometown) having an Earth Day event? Submit your details to SEEDS and it’ll be included on their Events calendar (for the months of April and May).   By listing your event, you can find people to join you. Maybe you bribe them with hot drinks, mud pies and Trash Mountain!