Millbridge School Principal Brian Stolarick throws a shovel of dirt and helps the kindergarten Class of 2036 plant the oak tree, with help from Green Team volunteers.
When the first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970, stripers never made it from the Atlantic Ocean past the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge for freshwater spawning in March, because the Delaware was too polluted by factories on both sides of the river.
By the mid-1980s, thanks to clean water legislation, fishermen and women started catching stripers along the Palmyra shoreline and near the Riverton Yacht Club. The river was alive once again with all different species of fish returning – including the stripers who now swim up as far as Trenton every spring.
This year, Earth Day events were celebrated by more than one billion people from some 193 countries around the globe.
Millbridge School youngsters did their part locally – with the help of the Delran Township Green Team – by taking part in the planting of an oak tree in the kindergarten grove on a sunny Earth Day morning, April 22.
A group of 10 students filed out of the school and onto the lawn shortly after 10 a.m. and each received a small shovel to help with the project. They were excited and a bit nervous.
With Millbridge Principal Brian Stolarick showing them how to use the shovels and toss soil, members of the kindergarten Class of 2036 refilled the hole where Green Team volunteers, led by Al Carp, planted the tree some 30 yards from the school’s entrance.
“Al Carp is the main tree guy,” said Councilman Lynn Jeney. “We hope to plant 23 trees this year. The Green Team is a great organization in our town.”
Working with the Delran School District Sustainability Committee and its coordinator, Erica DeMichele, the Green Team plants new trees at district schools each year. The two groups meet quarterly to discuss ways to make the schools more environmentally friendly for both teachers and students.
“The kindergarten students will watch these trees grow as they grow in school,” explained Jeney, praising the dedication of the Green Team volunteers and DeMichele, who is also the coordinator of the Delran school district’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) program.
The Earth Day project this year was funded by the New Jersey Shade Tree Federation through the William J. Porter Community Tree Project.
The Green Team itself meets the second Wednesday of every month at 7:30 p.m. in the township building. A volunteer committee appointed by mayor and council, it meets the certification requirements of the Sustainable Jersey program, which fosters lifestyle changes designed to minimize damage while protecting and maintaining natural resources.
“The Green Team will raise awareness and identify actions that can be taken by individuals, businesses and community groups that create an atmosphere of well-being and prosperity,” the team’s website notes. “The public is encouraged to attend monthly meetings and participate in volunteer opportunities.”
All four Delran schools are involved in the Sustainable Jersey for Schools program, including Millbridge, the high school and the intermediate and middle schools. In 2017, the school district earned the state collaboration award for “the work the schools were completing with the Delran Municipal Green Team.”
The mission of the district’s Sustainability Committee is: “If we can make healthy choices, and save money by doing things smarter, in the end, our students, community and planet will benefit.”
For more information, visit www.sustainablejerseyschools.com.
