Like a spring peeper
Disclaimer: The opinions and commentary expressed in this blog post are my own, and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the Chesapeake Education, Arts and Research Society (CHEARS), the City of Greenbelt, Volunteer Maryland, the Corporation for National and Community Service (Americorps), or any affiliated parties.
My job as a Volunteer Maryland Coordinator is to develop and enhance a volunteer program structure for the Chesapeake Education Arts and Research Society (CHEARS), a small nonprofit based in the DC suburb of Greenbelt, Maryland. The overall mission of CHEARS is to facilitate community-driven action projects that improve the health of people and the environment in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The structure of the organization is partnership-based, with one of the closest partners being the City of Greenbelt government.
Greenbelt is a rather unique town in that it was one of three planned communities inseminated during the Great Depression. Everything from the layout of the streets to civil organization was intended to have a close and intimate interaction with the natural environment.
Today, Greenbelt has preserved much if its original history of being a "greenbelt" town with community gardens, connected park systems, protected natural areas, and a host of active civic organizations and social support groups. The town, for the most part, is rather affluent with a large middle-class population and quality city services. The city has also been cutting-edge on environmental sustainability and low impact development, with well managed parks, green infrastructure, and an effort to localize its economy.
Yet even a resilient community like Greenbelt has it's darker shades of green. One of CHEARS's main projects is the Greenbelt Food Forest, a forest gardening demonstration area located in a less vibrant section of town along a stream bank at a public park known as the Springhill Lake Recreation Center.
If you were to ever see the Springhill Lake section of Greenbelt, you would not see any indication of intricate planning. The Springhill Lake section of Greenbelt was not aa part of the original planned community, and was instead incorporated into the city well after the federal government sold the original area of town in the early 1950s. Springhill Lake has all of the problems you would expect in an hustling bustling metro area: poor urban planning, too much traffic, light pollution, crime, and a transient minority population that is disenfranchised from the community, In fact, this area of Greenbelt is literally separated by several large highways from the original part of the town.
The park where our environmental garden project (the food forest) is was placed there for strategic reasons. My organization is attempting to develop a sense of community and environmental stewardship amongst a crowd of rowdy teenagers who throw trash on the ground, vandalize the facilities, and shout out curse words at other people as if it were a new dialect of English. The stream that flows by is polluted and eroded, and invasive species like Porcelain Berry (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata) and Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) smother the few bits of natural forest that remain there, creating ominous hiding spots for criminals and outcasts.
Over time, though, our work had been transforming this forgotten park into a productive and pleasant garden and forest restoration area. When Carolyn, a local resident at the nearby Franklin Park Apartments, approached us with the desire to help get people together to improve the park, my supervisor and I were thrilled. "Ya know, it just isn't right when we spend so much time and energy planting trees or building a fruit arbor to have it all knocked down." exclaimed Carolyn. "We need these children to develop a respect and relationship with this place."
Her words, spoken sincerely and kindly, were exactly the words I had been hoping to hear from exactly the right kind of person. Carolyn is an African American/Black/Minority/whatever label we need to choose right now who had been living at the Franklin Park Apartments for several years. It had been a goal of mine for a while to engage racial and ethnic minorities living in urban and suburban areas with environmental stewardship activities. I had my first run with that as a summer naturalist at a national park near Chicago working with the rowdiest inner-city youth you can imagine. If I managed to make a positive impact in their lives, then I suppose a fender bender to your car on the way to work during rush hour would be about the best analogy to describe the level of satisfaction I received from that experience. But Carolyn was kind, motivated, educated, and the figure we needed to start forging a relationship with. I invited her out to one our volunteer workdays at the garden site where we were trimming down some weeds and removing trash from the rain gardens at Springhill Lake in preparation for the spring season.
"Ya know Alex, I learn so much from you and I'm going to have to keep coming out and have you teach me everything," Carolyn said after a successful and fun day cleaning up the rain gardens. I smiled, "I'm glad. I really enjoyed working with you and your group."
The next two weeks were busy for me. It was time to plan garden workdays with the project coordinators, time to write my Mid-Year Report on all of the new volunteers I've recruited with the wonderful service learning and community building projects that we have , time to write another press release, time to deliver another pile of mulch...
~
One morning I received a call from Carolyn. Dah! I keep forgetting to touch base with Carolyn!, I thought to myself. My supervisor had told me more than once to focus my daily efforts on developing a partnership with Carolyn and her group of family members and friends, but I had been getting sidetracked with all of the other activities going on in Greenbelt. I lifted the receiver to my ear and chimed, "This is Alex!"
Carolyn had called me to bring up a summer camp idea she and her husband had, and she needed to provide some information pronto to present that night to the city's Parks and Recreation Advisory Board (PRAB). Carolyn, knowing my strong communication skills and access to resources, had called upon me to write up a proposal for a Springhill Lake summer camp in which CHEARS would provide a project and program as part of their 'Around the World Summer Camp."
My supervisor and I met with Carolyn and her husband in a meeting room inside the Springhill Lake Recreation Center building. Their eyes lit up as they delivered their proposal to have an "Around the World" summer camp with guest speakers from different countries, cultural immersion activities that were already planned, and natural history and ecology lessons that I would help facilitate to teach the children about the connection the Springhill Lake site had to the rest of our environment. "I learn so much from you, Alex." exclaims Carolyn as we leave the meeting room feeling refreshed. Now all we had to do was present the summer camp proposal and the organizational partnership in front of the PRAB panel.
I arrived a few minutes early to the PRAB meeting. It was being held in my favorite building in Greenbelt, the historic community center which was constructed as part of a "New Deal" project during the Great Depression under the auspices of the Roosevelt administration. The marble floors, the stained glass - everything had been well preserved since those times.
I caught Carolyn waiting outside the meeting room, a loose stack of papers in her hand, shuttering with excitement as well as uncertainty, as this was her first time at a PRAB meeting. "Do you know if someone is gonna come call us in?" Carolyn asks me. I was just as clueless as her, if not more, since I had never been to a PRAB meeting and I was still new to the community. "Let's just...walk in," I nervously croaked.
"AND YOU ARE??" asked the meeting facilitator. "Um, I'm with Carolyn..and um, I don't think I'm on your attendance list." "NO, YOU AREN'T....HAVE A SEAT."
We waited nervously while the PRAB moved through their agenda. Carolyn knew she was going to face some tough questions, but she had a great program in mind and with agreed-upon support from CHEARS. She also had me at her side, ready to vouch for her while proudly wearing my Americorps uniform.
"OKAY, LISTEN, I THINK IT'S GREAT THAT YOU'RE TRYING TO EDUCATE OUR YOUTH AND HELP THE ENVIRONMENT AND ALL OF THAT, BUT IT'S NOT UP TO US. IT'S UP TO CITY COUNCIL, AND WE'LL SEE IF THEY ACCEPT YOUR PROPOSAL," replied the meeting facilitator in response to hearing about Carolyn's plans for her Around the World Summer Camp at the Springhill Lake Recreation Center.
"Um, yeah I don't think we'll have space available. Plus we can't get you a room for free for a paid summer camp because that will directly compete with our basketball camp," replied the recreation department director as he tried to shrug off Carolyn's proposal.
Apparently, there was some uncertainty about the availability of space for the camp program at the Springhill Lake Recreation Center, and Carolyn's proposed program directly competed with their basketball camp, which primarily targets male adolescent youth although they allow girls in as well (the girls often end up standing around outside in an attempt to avoid harassment from the guys). The PRAB also mentioned concerns they had with the fact that Carolyn would charge a modest fee for her camp, since having a room for free at a city-owned recreation center was only permitted for free and publicly available programming.
In other words, we were out of luck.
The section of Greenbelt that the proposed camp was to take place in was badley underserved with respect to summer camp programming, and the nearby apartment complex had converted their youth center into a leasing office years ago. Therefore, hundreds of children were going to spend their summer with nothing to do and no where to go. And it seemed the city was too wrapped up in their red tape to try and step in and help their citizens out.
I melted in my chair as I listen to the panel dismiss our case. What should I have said? What else could I've done?
"I'm sure we can convince the city council," Carolyn murmured in my ear. We thanked the meeting facilitators and stepped out of the room.
As we exited the building, I asked Carolyn, "Are you sure the city council will move forward on this?" "Yeah, they will. I'm sure of it. Hey Alex, which way are ya headin'?" "I'm heading to my car...um...do you need a ride?" "YES!" sighed Carolyn with relief. Carolyn and her husband had walked across town to attend the meeting, and it was a long walk back along dark streets. They didn't have a car because they can't afford one.
Carolyn lived right across a footbridge over a small creek from the Springhill Lake Recreation Center. As we pulled into the Franklin Park apartments complex, a car zipped by well beyond the driveway's speed limit. I had to slam on my brakes as we dipped down into a large pothole. The apartment complex, constructed in the 1960s and which touts itself as a great place to live due to it's convenient location to a grocery store and a Metro stop, was in terrible shape. Nonetheless, the property managers had been continuously raising the rent as demands to live near the Metro station increased. Carolyn saw the frown that had developed on my face. "We just gotta stay positive, Alex! Stay positive. Why don't you join us for dinner sometime? Do you like BBQ?"
Carolyn and her husband thanked me for the ride, and they happily walked into their cramped apartment.
I felt a wave of fatigue wash over me. I barely could keep my eyes on the road as I headed home to my quiet neighborhood in a nearby town, out of sight from Greenbelt. I parked the car in front of my house. As I reached for the car door handle, a surge of tears washed down my face.
How could Carolyn stay positive when she and her husband had faced misfortune, apathy, and poverty in their lives? What was I doing wearing an Americorps uniform, happily "getting things done" for America when in reality there was trash clogging our rivers, children who weren't going to have a fun summer, and good-spirited people like Carolyn who were once again getting the back-hand for no good reason? I felt an impending sense of helplessness.
I stepped out of my car and trotted down the dark and quite street, a cool breeze brushing my face. As I passed the neighborhood park, I heard spring peepers (Pseudacris crucifer) in a nearby wetland along the river calling their spring mating call. That's interesting, I thought to myself. How are spring peepers able to survive here? The park I was passing by was a very urban park, and although the river and surrounding riparian zone were in a predominantly natural state, I wasn't aware that spring peepers, which like most amphibians need good water quality and habitat, were able to live in urban parks like this one. Well, maybe they aren't as numerous here as they are in more remote areas. Maybe spring peepers are in fact moderately pollutant tolerant and can at least survive here.
It then occurred to me that Carolyn was like a spring peeper, not living in ideal conditions but singing her heart out anyways as she embraced spring. And I was going to have to be brave and face the harsh realities of community-oriented environmental conservation, and that meant that I needed to be a spring peeper right alongside with Carolyn learning from her how to sing my heart out for the natural world that needs our help.
My job as a Volunteer Maryland Coordinator is to develop and enhance a volunteer program structure for the Chesapeake Education Arts and Research Society (CHEARS), a small nonprofit based in the DC suburb of Greenbelt, Maryland. The overall mission of CHEARS is to facilitate community-driven action projects that improve the health of people and the environment in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The structure of the organization is partnership-based, with one of the closest partners being the City of Greenbelt government.
Greenbelt is a rather unique town in that it was one of three planned communities inseminated during the Great Depression. Everything from the layout of the streets to civil organization was intended to have a close and intimate interaction with the natural environment.
Today, Greenbelt has preserved much if its original history of being a "greenbelt" town with community gardens, connected park systems, protected natural areas, and a host of active civic organizations and social support groups. The town, for the most part, is rather affluent with a large middle-class population and quality city services. The city has also been cutting-edge on environmental sustainability and low impact development, with well managed parks, green infrastructure, and an effort to localize its economy.
Yet even a resilient community like Greenbelt has it's darker shades of green. One of CHEARS's main projects is the Greenbelt Food Forest, a forest gardening demonstration area located in a less vibrant section of town along a stream bank at a public park known as the Springhill Lake Recreation Center.
If you were to ever see the Springhill Lake section of Greenbelt, you would not see any indication of intricate planning. The Springhill Lake section of Greenbelt was not aa part of the original planned community, and was instead incorporated into the city well after the federal government sold the original area of town in the early 1950s. Springhill Lake has all of the problems you would expect in an hustling bustling metro area: poor urban planning, too much traffic, light pollution, crime, and a transient minority population that is disenfranchised from the community, In fact, this area of Greenbelt is literally separated by several large highways from the original part of the town.
The park where our environmental garden project (the food forest) is was placed there for strategic reasons. My organization is attempting to develop a sense of community and environmental stewardship amongst a crowd of rowdy teenagers who throw trash on the ground, vandalize the facilities, and shout out curse words at other people as if it were a new dialect of English. The stream that flows by is polluted and eroded, and invasive species like Porcelain Berry (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata) and Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) smother the few bits of natural forest that remain there, creating ominous hiding spots for criminals and outcasts.
Over time, though, our work had been transforming this forgotten park into a productive and pleasant garden and forest restoration area. When Carolyn, a local resident at the nearby Franklin Park Apartments, approached us with the desire to help get people together to improve the park, my supervisor and I were thrilled. "Ya know, it just isn't right when we spend so much time and energy planting trees or building a fruit arbor to have it all knocked down." exclaimed Carolyn. "We need these children to develop a respect and relationship with this place."
Her words, spoken sincerely and kindly, were exactly the words I had been hoping to hear from exactly the right kind of person. Carolyn is an African American/Black/Minority/whatever label we need to choose right now who had been living at the Franklin Park Apartments for several years. It had been a goal of mine for a while to engage racial and ethnic minorities living in urban and suburban areas with environmental stewardship activities. I had my first run with that as a summer naturalist at a national park near Chicago working with the rowdiest inner-city youth you can imagine. If I managed to make a positive impact in their lives, then I suppose a fender bender to your car on the way to work during rush hour would be about the best analogy to describe the level of satisfaction I received from that experience. But Carolyn was kind, motivated, educated, and the figure we needed to start forging a relationship with. I invited her out to one our volunteer workdays at the garden site where we were trimming down some weeds and removing trash from the rain gardens at Springhill Lake in preparation for the spring season.
"Ya know Alex, I learn so much from you and I'm going to have to keep coming out and have you teach me everything," Carolyn said after a successful and fun day cleaning up the rain gardens. I smiled, "I'm glad. I really enjoyed working with you and your group."
The next two weeks were busy for me. It was time to plan garden workdays with the project coordinators, time to write my Mid-Year Report on all of the new volunteers I've recruited with the wonderful service learning and community building projects that we have , time to write another press release, time to deliver another pile of mulch...
~
One morning I received a call from Carolyn. Dah! I keep forgetting to touch base with Carolyn!, I thought to myself. My supervisor had told me more than once to focus my daily efforts on developing a partnership with Carolyn and her group of family members and friends, but I had been getting sidetracked with all of the other activities going on in Greenbelt. I lifted the receiver to my ear and chimed, "This is Alex!"
Carolyn had called me to bring up a summer camp idea she and her husband had, and she needed to provide some information pronto to present that night to the city's Parks and Recreation Advisory Board (PRAB). Carolyn, knowing my strong communication skills and access to resources, had called upon me to write up a proposal for a Springhill Lake summer camp in which CHEARS would provide a project and program as part of their 'Around the World Summer Camp."
My supervisor and I met with Carolyn and her husband in a meeting room inside the Springhill Lake Recreation Center building. Their eyes lit up as they delivered their proposal to have an "Around the World" summer camp with guest speakers from different countries, cultural immersion activities that were already planned, and natural history and ecology lessons that I would help facilitate to teach the children about the connection the Springhill Lake site had to the rest of our environment. "I learn so much from you, Alex." exclaims Carolyn as we leave the meeting room feeling refreshed. Now all we had to do was present the summer camp proposal and the organizational partnership in front of the PRAB panel.
I arrived a few minutes early to the PRAB meeting. It was being held in my favorite building in Greenbelt, the historic community center which was constructed as part of a "New Deal" project during the Great Depression under the auspices of the Roosevelt administration. The marble floors, the stained glass - everything had been well preserved since those times.
I caught Carolyn waiting outside the meeting room, a loose stack of papers in her hand, shuttering with excitement as well as uncertainty, as this was her first time at a PRAB meeting. "Do you know if someone is gonna come call us in?" Carolyn asks me. I was just as clueless as her, if not more, since I had never been to a PRAB meeting and I was still new to the community. "Let's just...walk in," I nervously croaked.
"AND YOU ARE??" asked the meeting facilitator. "Um, I'm with Carolyn..and um, I don't think I'm on your attendance list." "NO, YOU AREN'T....HAVE A SEAT."
We waited nervously while the PRAB moved through their agenda. Carolyn knew she was going to face some tough questions, but she had a great program in mind and with agreed-upon support from CHEARS. She also had me at her side, ready to vouch for her while proudly wearing my Americorps uniform.
"OKAY, LISTEN, I THINK IT'S GREAT THAT YOU'RE TRYING TO EDUCATE OUR YOUTH AND HELP THE ENVIRONMENT AND ALL OF THAT, BUT IT'S NOT UP TO US. IT'S UP TO CITY COUNCIL, AND WE'LL SEE IF THEY ACCEPT YOUR PROPOSAL," replied the meeting facilitator in response to hearing about Carolyn's plans for her Around the World Summer Camp at the Springhill Lake Recreation Center.
"Um, yeah I don't think we'll have space available. Plus we can't get you a room for free for a paid summer camp because that will directly compete with our basketball camp," replied the recreation department director as he tried to shrug off Carolyn's proposal.
Apparently, there was some uncertainty about the availability of space for the camp program at the Springhill Lake Recreation Center, and Carolyn's proposed program directly competed with their basketball camp, which primarily targets male adolescent youth although they allow girls in as well (the girls often end up standing around outside in an attempt to avoid harassment from the guys). The PRAB also mentioned concerns they had with the fact that Carolyn would charge a modest fee for her camp, since having a room for free at a city-owned recreation center was only permitted for free and publicly available programming.
In other words, we were out of luck.
The section of Greenbelt that the proposed camp was to take place in was badley underserved with respect to summer camp programming, and the nearby apartment complex had converted their youth center into a leasing office years ago. Therefore, hundreds of children were going to spend their summer with nothing to do and no where to go. And it seemed the city was too wrapped up in their red tape to try and step in and help their citizens out.
I melted in my chair as I listen to the panel dismiss our case. What should I have said? What else could I've done?
"I'm sure we can convince the city council," Carolyn murmured in my ear. We thanked the meeting facilitators and stepped out of the room.
As we exited the building, I asked Carolyn, "Are you sure the city council will move forward on this?" "Yeah, they will. I'm sure of it. Hey Alex, which way are ya headin'?" "I'm heading to my car...um...do you need a ride?" "YES!" sighed Carolyn with relief. Carolyn and her husband had walked across town to attend the meeting, and it was a long walk back along dark streets. They didn't have a car because they can't afford one.
Carolyn lived right across a footbridge over a small creek from the Springhill Lake Recreation Center. As we pulled into the Franklin Park apartments complex, a car zipped by well beyond the driveway's speed limit. I had to slam on my brakes as we dipped down into a large pothole. The apartment complex, constructed in the 1960s and which touts itself as a great place to live due to it's convenient location to a grocery store and a Metro stop, was in terrible shape. Nonetheless, the property managers had been continuously raising the rent as demands to live near the Metro station increased. Carolyn saw the frown that had developed on my face. "We just gotta stay positive, Alex! Stay positive. Why don't you join us for dinner sometime? Do you like BBQ?"
Carolyn and her husband thanked me for the ride, and they happily walked into their cramped apartment.
I felt a wave of fatigue wash over me. I barely could keep my eyes on the road as I headed home to my quiet neighborhood in a nearby town, out of sight from Greenbelt. I parked the car in front of my house. As I reached for the car door handle, a surge of tears washed down my face.
How could Carolyn stay positive when she and her husband had faced misfortune, apathy, and poverty in their lives? What was I doing wearing an Americorps uniform, happily "getting things done" for America when in reality there was trash clogging our rivers, children who weren't going to have a fun summer, and good-spirited people like Carolyn who were once again getting the back-hand for no good reason? I felt an impending sense of helplessness.
I stepped out of my car and trotted down the dark and quite street, a cool breeze brushing my face. As I passed the neighborhood park, I heard spring peepers (Pseudacris crucifer) in a nearby wetland along the river calling their spring mating call. That's interesting, I thought to myself. How are spring peepers able to survive here? The park I was passing by was a very urban park, and although the river and surrounding riparian zone were in a predominantly natural state, I wasn't aware that spring peepers, which like most amphibians need good water quality and habitat, were able to live in urban parks like this one. Well, maybe they aren't as numerous here as they are in more remote areas. Maybe spring peepers are in fact moderately pollutant tolerant and can at least survive here.
It then occurred to me that Carolyn was like a spring peeper, not living in ideal conditions but singing her heart out anyways as she embraced spring. And I was going to have to be brave and face the harsh realities of community-oriented environmental conservation, and that meant that I needed to be a spring peeper right alongside with Carolyn learning from her how to sing my heart out for the natural world that needs our help.
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