Spring Stewardship & Learning Volunteer Days
April 12, 2025: Fort Tryon Park
We had a great turn out for our volunteer day, despite the soggy weather! 30 students and 7 volunteers.
In spring 2025, Christodora held two public volunteer days in coordination with our Community of Rising Environmentalists (CoRE) program - one in March and one in April. The volunteer days aim to introduce more people to our students' amazing work and help lend a hand in keeping New York City’s parks and green spaces vibrant. Our first volunteer day was held in Charley French Playground in the park, just slightly north of the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. The day began by helping to revitalize the woodland by cleaning up trash and invasive species from the nearby parkland. Some of the newest members of our junior board and several Christodora alumni came out to lend a hand. In honor of the World Day of Water, students then conducted water sampling in the Bronx River led by a geologist, professor, and Christodora Alumni Adrian Castro.
March 22, 2025 Pictures Below: Charley French Playground
Our second volunteer day was at Fort Tryon Park in Manhattan. Although the weather was a little soggy, our motto is: “There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.” This is the second year of this partnership with Fort Tryon Park, and we were delighted to work again on maintain Cabrini Woods Nature Sanctuary. As part of their work, students helped with clearing the trail, removing invasive species like garlic mustard, wineberry, and English Ivy, and picking up trash. On this day, we removed a whopping 187 lbs of trash and 63.8 lbs of invasive species. Beyond that, the students had a great time and enjoyed birding around the park afterwards, led by Christodora board member and official bird nerd, Chris McKenzie. In total, we had 7 volunteers join in the fun, and several species of birds were spotted, including the American Robin, Woodpeckers, Bluejays, Juncos, Grackles, and more. The day's highlight was one of the students discovering a salamander in the leaves.
April 12, 2025 Pictures Below: Fort Tryon Park
We are grateful to the support of the Vidda Foundation and Metlife Foundation for support of our Community of Rising Environmentalists (CoRE) program.