Bronx River Education

Operation Bronx River Floatables Removal

August 24, 2009

While one way to prove an understanding of environment and environmental education may be a multiple choice exam, the real proof lies in action. In the early days of July the young people that attend the Tremont United Methodist Church Summer Program visited the Bronx River at the Mitsubishi River Walk adjacent to the Bronx Zoo. The goal was to get in a canoe in the Bronx River and learn the basics of paddling. Forty-five youth, thier counselors and their director, Cheryl Holtz Andrews, met their goal with flying colors, paddling until their armswere ready to fall off. But this was just the beginning. Two young lady’s looked around at the river and were not quite satisfied with the experience of canoeing for the first time in their lives.
“Damian, we should do something about all of these plastic bottles floating in the river,” said one.
“Yeah, they could all be recycled,” said the other. And  from their they set about making it happen.
Today, after almost two months of convincing their director that it was a necessary event, the two returned with 12 other program participants and once again paddled the river. This time, however, the focus was the removal of any  floatable garbage that they could reach safely from their canoes. With dilligence and care (and no lack of joyful enthusiasm) the youth spent over an hour paddling to distinct areas of the river between the Bronx Zoo and The New York Botanical Garden and removing plastic bottles, plastic bags and one large plastic triangle once used as part of a traffic blockade. It  was impressive to see  the pride with which each successive canoe came up on to the bank to show off what they had found in the river, what they had done to improve the environment that surrounds them. If there is a test to discover just what has been internalized from a lesson, this was it.

Entry Filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: bronx river, canoe, Floatables, summer program.