5.1.09
Here are two really interesting websites that I discovered recently.
1. While I was working on my EcoTour scripts for Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, I came across an interesting website set up by local Buffalo artist Julian Montague. On his website you can read about the system he created for classifying stray shopping carts found throughout Eastern North America. You can also buy his book, The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification. Mr. Montague has a number of other interesting projects. I would highly recommend checking them out.
2. From time to time I take a look at BuffaloRising.com. It is a great website if you are looking for something to do in Buffalo. One of the featured articles highlighted a website called foundmagazine.com. The creator of this website began collecting notes and other trinkets that were anonymously left behind on the street, in the library, at the park, or wherever. He published a book of these collected anonymous notes, and since then, people all over the country have been motivated to join him. If you are ever in need of a good laugh, be sure to spend some time on Found Magazine's website.
Friday, May 1, 2009
EcoTour Guides and Four Square
4.25.09
As I mentioned in the previous entry, one of my many jobs is to organize volunteers for various Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper events. I have also been working to implement a volunteer tour guide training program for Riverkeeper's summer EcoTour series. Basically, Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper offers educational tours on various local waterways throughout the summer. Tour goers have the opportunity to bike, hike, or paddle next to or on the Buffalo River, the Niagara River and Gorge, Scajaquada Creek, and Tonawanda Creek while learning about various ecological issues.
Because of recent increases in my organization's responsibilities and commitments, staff members no longer have time to give tours to the public. Therefore, it was my job to recruit volunteers who were willing to lead Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper EcoTours along the waterways previously mentioned. It was also my responsibility to write comprehensive scripts for the tour guides to study. Despite the difficulties associated with this task, I'm grateful for all the information I learned. I was amazed by the connections and facts I uncovered. The history of Buffalo and Niagara Falls should not be taken for granted!
In order to verify my scripts, I was asked to attend the EcoTour field trainings. Today staff member Larry Brooks lead volunteer tour guides on a bike tour of the Niagara River and Falls as well as on a hike of the Niagara Gorge. It was eventful day and was able to add quite a bit more information to my scripts.
All the volunteer tour guides met early in the morning at the New York Power Authority (NYPA) intakes on the Robert Moses Parkway to start their field training of the Niagara River, Falls, and Gorge. Except for a strong wind, the weather was beautiful.
The Rapids Just Before the American Falls
View From the Entrance to Goat Island
Larry stopped to teach the group about Goat Island and Niagara Falls.
4.26.09
Recently, my friends and I have rekindled our long lost love for four square. Four square is easy and fun to play. All you need is a piece of chalk and a playground ball. The object of the game is to move up to the fourth, and final, square. You do this by volleying the ball back and forth between the four squares. If a ball bounces twice in your square before you hit it into another person's square, you are out. Once you are out, you have to start over at the first square.
Each of my friends has their own unique way of hitting the playground ball. It is very fun to play, even if it is competitve at times.
While waiting to return to the first square, it is common to create chalk doodles like these. This one was born from something I said by accident. I meant to ask "Where do you go?" but instead it came out as "Where do you grow?". We all thought it was an interesting and silly question.
Alyssa is getting ready to return to the game. This time she has my hat for back up.
Bill
Here is an action shot of Nate, Andy, and Shelley. Nate is famous for his "spin of death" which is very difficult to return after he serves it.
Shelley and Alyssa
Nate, Bill, Amanda, and Shelley
As I mentioned in the previous entry, one of my many jobs is to organize volunteers for various Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper events. I have also been working to implement a volunteer tour guide training program for Riverkeeper's summer EcoTour series. Basically, Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper offers educational tours on various local waterways throughout the summer. Tour goers have the opportunity to bike, hike, or paddle next to or on the Buffalo River, the Niagara River and Gorge, Scajaquada Creek, and Tonawanda Creek while learning about various ecological issues.
Because of recent increases in my organization's responsibilities and commitments, staff members no longer have time to give tours to the public. Therefore, it was my job to recruit volunteers who were willing to lead Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper EcoTours along the waterways previously mentioned. It was also my responsibility to write comprehensive scripts for the tour guides to study. Despite the difficulties associated with this task, I'm grateful for all the information I learned. I was amazed by the connections and facts I uncovered. The history of Buffalo and Niagara Falls should not be taken for granted!
In order to verify my scripts, I was asked to attend the EcoTour field trainings. Today staff member Larry Brooks lead volunteer tour guides on a bike tour of the Niagara River and Falls as well as on a hike of the Niagara Gorge. It was eventful day and was able to add quite a bit more information to my scripts.
All the volunteer tour guides met early in the morning at the New York Power Authority (NYPA) intakes on the Robert Moses Parkway to start their field training of the Niagara River, Falls, and Gorge. Except for a strong wind, the weather was beautiful.
The Rapids Just Before the American Falls
View From the Entrance to Goat Island
Larry stopped to teach the group about Goat Island and Niagara Falls.4.26.09
Recently, my friends and I have rekindled our long lost love for four square. Four square is easy and fun to play. All you need is a piece of chalk and a playground ball. The object of the game is to move up to the fourth, and final, square. You do this by volleying the ball back and forth between the four squares. If a ball bounces twice in your square before you hit it into another person's square, you are out. Once you are out, you have to start over at the first square.
Each of my friends has their own unique way of hitting the playground ball. It is very fun to play, even if it is competitve at times.
While waiting to return to the first square, it is common to create chalk doodles like these. This one was born from something I said by accident. I meant to ask "Where do you go?" but instead it came out as "Where do you grow?". We all thought it was an interesting and silly question.
Alyssa is getting ready to return to the game. This time she has my hat for back up.
Bill
Here is an action shot of Nate, Andy, and Shelley. Nate is famous for his "spin of death" which is very difficult to return after he serves it.
Shelley and Alyssa
Nate, Bill, Amanda, and ShelleyRiverkeeper's Spring Shoreline Cleanup
4.18.09
As Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper's Volunteer Coordinator, one of my many jobs is to organize events such as the Spring Shoreline Cleanup that took place on April 18, 2009 from 9am to noon. Before the day, there was a lot of work to be done including: training site captains, ordering and picking up supplies, recruiting volunteers, sending out reminder emails, updating the Riverkeeper website, requesting donations, and much more. Keeping all of the site captains and volunteers organized was quite a challenge at times.
In the end the event turned out to be a great success! We had over 1300 volunteers turn out to pick up litter at over 35 shoreline sides in the Buffalo Niagara region. I should mention that over 1600 community members pre-registered for the event which made this year's spring cleanup the biggest one in Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper history. Besides volunteer time, quite a few organizations donated supplies and grant money to make this event possible. Some of our sponsors included New Era Caps (each of the 35 site captains received a free hat for there service), M&T Bank, Target, TOPS Friendly Markets, Walmart, Keep American Beautiful, and American Rivers. Numerous other local businesses and organizations rallied their workers together in order to tackle garbage at a specific sites. Some of these companies included: Olmsted Park's Conservancy, Bank of America, Fisher-Price, Rich Products, Adirondack Club, Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) members, many student groups, and others.
The cleanup wouldn't not have been a success without each volunteer's willingness to remove unsightly debris from the local waterways. I was astonished by the before/after pictures of several cleanup sites. My personal Spring Shoreline Cleanup pictures are shown below. However, if you would like to see more please click here. Also, quite a bit of interesting trash was picked up including a craw-dad trap and a cat scratching post. To see what else participants found, click here and scroll down.
I even persuaded some of my good friends (and parents) to help out. They were stationed at Amherst Veterans Canal Park, and from the looks of their pictures, they had a great time. :)
I arrived at Gallagher Beach around 8am along with the rest of the AmeriCorps crew.
The mission: to clean this beach before 12pm.
Mark Lazara (the CEO of Western New York AmeriCorps), Congressman Brian Higgins, and Julie O'Neil (executive director of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper) spoke to us before the cleanup began.
Some of the members of Western New York AmeriCorps
From left to right: my supervisor (Kerri Bentkowski), my co-worker (Krissy), the CEO of Western New York AmeriCorps (Mark Lazara), the executive director of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper (Julie O'Neil), and me.
Mark and Julie speaking with a local news station.
Cleaning Gallagher Beach
Shelley and Alyssa were snoozing on the job.
Someone had left a tarp behind and my mother thought it would be a perfect dress.
Since I coordinated the event, I roamed around to all of the sites. Unfortunately, I did not have time to visit Amherst Veteran's Canal Park where all my friends and family were working. When I saw my father at the picnic, he said he was "pooped" because he rolled so many tires.
The Amherst Veteran's Canal Park Crew from right to left: Shelley, Janie, Andy, Bill, Nate, my father Jim, my mother Debbie, Katherine, and I don't know this person's name. Alyssa is sitting in the front.
Many volunteers showed up for the appreciation cookout afterward.
Some local business owners relaxing after a hard morning of picking up litter and debris.
Here is Jim, one of our Riverwatch Captains, serving hot dogs. He insisted that I take a break for a little while. At this point, I had been running around all day.
That evening Riverkeeper was also in charge of organizing the Buffalo River Boomdays Festival. The celebration took place at Dug's Dive on Fuhrman Boulevard near the water. Many people (even my friends) showed up to celebrate the removal of the ice boom from the river. There was food, drinks, a live band, and fireworks. Clean up volunteers got in for free and also received a free drink. Most of the people in the picture above are either Riverkeeper staff or board members. Front row from left to right: Tricia, me, Kelly, Margaret, Krissy, Jill, and I don't know this person. Top row from left to right: I don't know this person, Kerri, Julie, Larry, Greg, and I don't know this person.
As Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper's Volunteer Coordinator, one of my many jobs is to organize events such as the Spring Shoreline Cleanup that took place on April 18, 2009 from 9am to noon. Before the day, there was a lot of work to be done including: training site captains, ordering and picking up supplies, recruiting volunteers, sending out reminder emails, updating the Riverkeeper website, requesting donations, and much more. Keeping all of the site captains and volunteers organized was quite a challenge at times.
In the end the event turned out to be a great success! We had over 1300 volunteers turn out to pick up litter at over 35 shoreline sides in the Buffalo Niagara region. I should mention that over 1600 community members pre-registered for the event which made this year's spring cleanup the biggest one in Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper history. Besides volunteer time, quite a few organizations donated supplies and grant money to make this event possible. Some of our sponsors included New Era Caps (each of the 35 site captains received a free hat for there service), M&T Bank, Target, TOPS Friendly Markets, Walmart, Keep American Beautiful, and American Rivers. Numerous other local businesses and organizations rallied their workers together in order to tackle garbage at a specific sites. Some of these companies included: Olmsted Park's Conservancy, Bank of America, Fisher-Price, Rich Products, Adirondack Club, Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) members, many student groups, and others.
The cleanup wouldn't not have been a success without each volunteer's willingness to remove unsightly debris from the local waterways. I was astonished by the before/after pictures of several cleanup sites. My personal Spring Shoreline Cleanup pictures are shown below. However, if you would like to see more please click here. Also, quite a bit of interesting trash was picked up including a craw-dad trap and a cat scratching post. To see what else participants found, click here and scroll down.
I even persuaded some of my good friends (and parents) to help out. They were stationed at Amherst Veterans Canal Park, and from the looks of their pictures, they had a great time. :)
I arrived at Gallagher Beach around 8am along with the rest of the AmeriCorps crew.
The mission: to clean this beach before 12pm.
Mark Lazara (the CEO of Western New York AmeriCorps), Congressman Brian Higgins, and Julie O'Neil (executive director of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper) spoke to us before the cleanup began.
Some of the members of Western New York AmeriCorps
From left to right: my supervisor (Kerri Bentkowski), my co-worker (Krissy), the CEO of Western New York AmeriCorps (Mark Lazara), the executive director of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper (Julie O'Neil), and me.
Mark and Julie speaking with a local news station.
Cleaning Gallagher Beach
Shelley and Alyssa were snoozing on the job.
Someone had left a tarp behind and my mother thought it would be a perfect dress.
Since I coordinated the event, I roamed around to all of the sites. Unfortunately, I did not have time to visit Amherst Veteran's Canal Park where all my friends and family were working. When I saw my father at the picnic, he said he was "pooped" because he rolled so many tires.
The Amherst Veteran's Canal Park Crew from right to left: Shelley, Janie, Andy, Bill, Nate, my father Jim, my mother Debbie, Katherine, and I don't know this person's name. Alyssa is sitting in the front.
Many volunteers showed up for the appreciation cookout afterward.
Some local business owners relaxing after a hard morning of picking up litter and debris.
Here is Jim, one of our Riverwatch Captains, serving hot dogs. He insisted that I take a break for a little while. At this point, I had been running around all day.
That evening Riverkeeper was also in charge of organizing the Buffalo River Boomdays Festival. The celebration took place at Dug's Dive on Fuhrman Boulevard near the water. Many people (even my friends) showed up to celebrate the removal of the ice boom from the river. There was food, drinks, a live band, and fireworks. Clean up volunteers got in for free and also received a free drink. Most of the people in the picture above are either Riverkeeper staff or board members. Front row from left to right: Tricia, me, Kelly, Margaret, Krissy, Jill, and I don't know this person. Top row from left to right: I don't know this person, Kerri, Julie, Larry, Greg, and I don't know this person.Side Notes: Stephanie, to answer your question about the Ice Boom (see comments), an Ice Boom is a floating structure made from large wooden poles that have been chained together. Every winter the United States Coast Guard puts them across the Niagara River to protect the hydroelectric intake structures from large chucks of ice. According to Wikipedia, the Ice Boom was first placed across the Niagara River in 1964. Buffalo Boomdays festival is important because it marks the removal of the Ice Boom from the river; and therefore, the end of winter.
Opening Day of Trout Season
4.1.09
Today was the opening day of trout season! My father woke up around 4am, packed his tackle box, grabbed his fishing pole, and headed to Arcade, NY with my neighbor. I was a little disappointed that I could join but I had to work. The last time I went out with my father, it was very rainy but this year the weather was beautiful. My father caught several fish (two very large and a few medium sized ones). We decided to eat the one below for dinner. It was delicious. :)
Typically, streams will be stocked with fish to accommodate all the eager fisherman. Most of the fish that my father and neighbor caught were stocked fish.
Brown Trout Snout
Today was the opening day of trout season! My father woke up around 4am, packed his tackle box, grabbed his fishing pole, and headed to Arcade, NY with my neighbor. I was a little disappointed that I could join but I had to work. The last time I went out with my father, it was very rainy but this year the weather was beautiful. My father caught several fish (two very large and a few medium sized ones). We decided to eat the one below for dinner. It was delicious. :)
Typically, streams will be stocked with fish to accommodate all the eager fisherman. Most of the fish that my father and neighbor caught were stocked fish.
Brown Trout Snout
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