Rutgers Volunteers Give Back to the Community by Making Newark Green

Earth Day 2009 at Rutgers University in Newark

RUTGERS VOLUNTEERS WILL BEAUTIFY THEIR CAMPUS AND THE NEWARK CONSERVANCY ON APRIL 20 AND APRIL 22

WHAT: Once again Earth Day will bring together members of the Rutgers community in Newark for two days of “green” service to Newark. On Monday, April 20 (rain date: Monday, April 27), volunteers will create a new garden of native grasses, under the direction of Rutgers Assistant Prof. Claus Holzapfel, a plant ecologist who specializes in the creation of urban “wildlands.” The volunteers also will add new plantings and spruce up two existing gardens on the Norman Samuels Plaza.  Rutgers volunteers planted these gardens on past Earth Days to help demonstrate sustainable gardening and create bird- and butterfly-friendly habitats on campus, a green oasis in NewarkÂ’s concrete canyons.   

Two days later, on Wednesday April 22, volunteers will pitch in to help ready the gardens at the Greater Newark ConservancyÂ’s Urban Environmental Center,

WHO: Students, faculty, staff and students will get their hands dirty by weeding, planting, raking and composting.

WHEN/WHERE:

• Earth Day activities on Monday, April 20 (rain date: Monday, April 27), from 11:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m., will take place at the Norman Samuels Plaza (entrances from University Avenue and the Paul Robeson Campus Center) at 350 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

• Earth Day activities on Wednesday, April 22 (rain date: Wednesday April 29) from 10 a.m. –noon and from 1 p.m. until 3 p.m., will be at the Greater Newark ConservancyÂ’s Urban Environmental Center, Springfield Avenue and Prince Street, Newark. 

BACKGROUND: Earth Day allows the Rutgers family to give back to the community by making Newark more “green.”  Students learn how to become environmental stewards.

THE MEDIA IS WELCOME TO COVER THESE EVENTS.  CONTACT: Carla Capizzi, 973/353-5263, capizzi@andromeda.rutgers.edu; WEBSITE, MAP AND DIRECTIONS: http://www.newark.rutgers.edu/earthday/