Blog

Vol­un­teer Teams Keep us Blooming

Jul 8, 2016 8:05 am

Now in its sec­ond year, our Team Vol­un­teer­ing and Cor­po­rate Mem­ber­ship Pro­gram is bloom­ing! This pro­gram is vital to many of Gov­er­nors Island’s hor­ti­cul­tur­al and envi­ron­men­tal ini­tia­tives as it engages vol­un­teers in the hard work of keep­ing pace with our demand­ing new and his­toric land­scapes. Last year, the program’s inau­gur­al sea­son, 20 cor­po­rate and 10 non-prof­it and com­mu­ni­ty groups brought a total of 1,200 vol­un­teers who donat­ed 5,860 hours of hor­ti­cul­tur­al stewardship.

This pro­gram would not be pos­si­ble with­out crit­i­cal fund­ing and con­tin­ued sup­port from Amer­i­can Express and Bloomberg L.P. This sup­port has allowed us to plan strate­gi­cal­ly, build a hor­ti­cul­tur­al tools arse­nal, replen­ish our deferred plant-stock, fine-tune project design and build in nec­es­sary super­vi­sion and train­ing for volunteers. 

Amer­i­can Express

Last year, over 130 Amer­i­can Express employ­ees vol­un­teered in five team projects, breath­ing new life into the bucol­ic land­scapes of the his­toric Nolan Park, as well as ensur­ing the health of the new for­est on the South Island. This year, our ter­rif­ic part­ner­ship con­tin­ues. An Amer­i­can Express team was the first ever vol­un­teer group to work in the newest part of the park — The Hills, and the icon­ic Pic­nic Point. Work­ing along­side incred­i­ble views of the Har­bor, the Man­hat­tan sky­line, and the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty, the team installed tem­po­rary fenc­ing that will pro­tect new­ly seed­ed lawns when the Hills open to the pub­lic on July 19. 

With five more Amer­i­can Express groups sched­uled for big projects in the com­ing weeks, we are look­ing for­ward to meet­ing our stew­ard­ship goals for the mead­ows of Ham­mock Grove and the hedge mazes of Liggett Terrace!

Bloomberg L.P.

Bloomberg L.P. brought 148 vol­un­teers to the Island in 2015. Their dynam­ic teams worked in our new park mak­ing sure our wood­lands are thriv­ing, the weeds are not encroach­ing, and the soil is well aer­at­ed. This year, Bloomberg is help­ing us spear­head ​“The Green Zone,” a unique back-of-house com­plex need­ed to keep the Island’s land­scapes healthy and sus­tain­able. Vol­un­teers will par­tic­i­pate in estab­lish­ing grow hous­es, a nurs­ery, com­post oper­a­tions, soil blend­ing test beds, and liq­uid bio­log­i­cal amend­ment and com­post tea oper­a­tions — our efforts to achieve a closed loop organ­ic waste cycle where all hor­ti­cul­tur­al and food wastes gen­er­at­ed on the Island are processed and returned to the landscape.

These two trail­blaz­ing com­pa­nies are fol­lowed by oth­er cor­po­rate vol­un­teer part­ners that are not only inte­gral to Gov­er­nors Island sus­tain­abil­i­ty but also cre­ate a sense of civic engage­ment and own­er­ship for our green spaces and allow us pro­vide sup­plies and super­vi­sion for non-prof­it and com­mu­ni­ty groups to enjoy team build­ing ser­vice projects on the Island.

Thank you to all of our cor­po­rate and non-prof­it part­ners for lend­ing your hands, your enthu­si­asm, and your care! We are look­ing for­ward to see­ing you soon.

For more infor­ma­tion on team vol­un­teer­ing and cor­po­rate mem­ber­ship, please vis­it gov​is​land​.com/​c​o​r​p​orate or email masha@​friendsgi.​org.