Jackson Daisy Scouts prepare park for National Trails Day ribbon cutting ceremony
June 6, 2009 by Phil Stilton
Filed under Feature, Latest Headlines
Jackson, NJ – Armed with shovels, rakes and a whole lot of community spirit, the girls of Daisy Troop 110 from the Lucy N. Holman elementary school landscaped and planted a flower garden this morning at the Bunker Hill Bogs Wildlife Recreation Area, Jackson Township’s newest park. The park consists of over 5 miles of hiking and scenic trails along the Bunker Hill Bogs which was preserved and saved from developers through many years of hard work by the Jackson Pathfinders. The girls were on a tight deadline today as the official ribbon cutting ceremony takes place tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m., followed by a short hike through the preserve and a community cleanup project. Mayor Mike Reina is expected to be in attendance along with members of the Pathfinders organization and other township dignitaries to celebrate National Trails Day and the official opening of the park.
Above you can see the before and after of the Kiosk flower garden at Bunker Hill Bogs.
The girls, ages 5 and 6, and their parents led by troop leader Kathleen Malmstrom, arrived at the Bogs at 9:00 am and started clearing out their garden area, removing branches, picking weeds and turning the soil in preparation for their transformation.
They then headed to I&G Farms on Whitesville Road, just a minute from the park where Justin, an employee at the farm center helped the girls pick out flowers, plants and bushes that are both beautiful and deer resistant as the bog area is home to many dozens of white tailed deer, beavers, groundhogs, rabbits and other plant eating animals.
After picking the right flowers for the jobs, the girls headed back and got busy digging and planting their flowers, which I&G farms gave a generous discount on to the scouts. (hint: go to I&G farms and buy some flowers).
By noon, the girls and their parents finished the garden and were ready to go home after hard day’s work. Their flower garden and the park is a gift to the Jackson community given by Jackson residents. The entire park has been created through state grants and volunteer efforts by the Pathfinders, Jersey Shore Boy Scouts, Jersey Shore Girl Scouts and dozens of volunteers who have worked very hard this past winter to get the park and trails ready for tomorrow’s ribbon cutting ceremony.
The plants and landscaping supplies for this project were donated by Jackson NJ Online with the help of our friends at I&G farms who were generous to provide the scouts a discount on their materials for the project. “When you give children the tools to give back to the community, it’s amazing how well they respond.” said Phil Stilton, an organizer of the project “These girls could have slept in today and watched cartoons, but they knew the mayor and other important people will be here tomorrow morning and wanted to do something special for Jackson. Every one of them went home covered in dirt and mulch this morning.”
After meeting park site manager Art Rosky over the winter and realizing the girls still needed to work on a community garden for the scout program, Mr. Stilton felt the Pathfinders and the Girl Scouts were a perfect match and introduced the two groups to each other. Each hour of time donated on this project helps the pathfinders earn credits from the State of New Jersey to buy more trees from the Forestry Resource & Education Center. “I’m hoping other scouts and community organizations can see what both the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts have done here and help make this place beautiful ” he continued, referring to the informational Kiosks built and provided earlier in the year by local Boy Scouts “There are many opportunities here at the bogs with all sorts of environmental projects for children to lead and I’m sure our kids can continue to deliver.”
Any other volunteer organizations who wish to help make this park beautiful by planting flower gardens, working on cleanup projects or donating materials to this effort should contact Karen Borga, chairperson for the Jackson Pathfinders at (908) 330-2579 or visit the Pathfinders online at www.jacksonpathfinders.org. The garden still needs appropriate border material to be complete.
If you are interesting in having your daughter join the Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore, visit http://www.girlscoutsjs.org/ or call (800) 785-2090 to find a troop in Jackson.
Target’s “Take Charge of Education” fundraiser has donated over $45,000 Jackson Township Schools
Target Stores have donated over $45,000 to Jackson Township schools to date with their Take Charge of Education program. Through this program, parents can register their target card or checking account to automatically donate 1% of their total purchase directly to their child’s school at no cost to the parent or cardholder. So, for every $100 you spend, target will donate $1.
In these troubling economic times which have seen programs and services fall to the axe of budget cuts, this is just one way to raise money for your child’s school without a cost to taxpayers. In our district, Jackson Liberty High School parents have far out paced all other schools with over $13,500, or 30% of contributions donated since joining the program.
As Jackson residents, all of your target purchases currently help the districts of Freehold, Toms River and Howell, but this is a great way to take some of that money back for our own children. By encouraging parents, senior communities, members or sports and political organizations to sign up for the Red Card program, we can help alleviate some of the tax burdens and cuts we have had to face over the years in regards to public education.
Currently 458 people have signed up for the program which directly benefits Jackson Township Schools averaging $100 in contributions per person. Lets see if we can double this number and get the entire community involved. We all shop at target, there’s no reason not to enroll in this program.
How can you promote this program?
Click the following link for tools necessary to generate flyers, information to present the program, clipart and website banners to be used to help children in Jackson.
https://sites.target.com/site/en/corporate/page.jsp?contentId=PRD03-001848
How can local organizations help raise money for our schools through the Take Charge of Education program at Target?
- Visit http://target.com/tcoe to learn more about the program.
- Include information about Take Charge of Education in your next PTO, Sports, Political Club, Business or fundraising newsletter or memo and encourage your members to sign up.
- Make it easy for members to designate your school of choice by providing them with the school’s 5 digit school ID. Jackson Schools are all listed below.
- Offer information for members who do not have or want a target card that the program can link directly to a checking account while the rewards still go to your school.
- Include a Take Charge of Education banner or link on your school, organization, business or charity website.
- Encourage members to speard the information to family members and friends, including aunts, uncles and grandparents.
- Encourage our board of education to promote this program along with other fund raising programs for our children.
School by School Breakdown as of May 21, 2009
CARL GOETZ MIDDLE SCHOOL
School ID:73070
The most recent Target donation to this school (March 2009): $260.46
Total of all Target donations to this school through March 2009: $4939.76
Amount accumulated toward the next Target donation:* $111.33
Number of REDcard holders who have designated this school: 44
CHRISTA MCAULIFFE MIDDLE SCHOOL
School ID:73064
The most recent Target donation to this school (March 2009): $314.47
Total of all Target donations to this school through March 2009: $3936.64
Amount accumulated toward the next Target donation:* $111.56
Number of REDcard holders who have designated this school: 37
CRAWFORDRODRIGUEZ ELEM SCHOOL
School ID:116776
The most recent Target donation to this school (March 2009): $480.0
Total of all Target donations to this school through March 2009: $5279.49
Amount accumulated toward the next Target donation:* $188.62
Number of REDcard holders who have designated this school: 61
ELMS ELEM SCHOOL
School ID:119558
The most recent Target donation to this school (March 2009): $499.5
Total of all Target donations to this school through March 2009: $4448.43
Amount accumulated toward the next Target donation:* $186.52
Number of REDcard holders who have designated this school: 46
HOLMAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
JSchool ID:73068
The most recent Target donation to this school (March 2009): $303.93
Total of all Target donations to this school through March 2009: $3904.13
Amount accumulated toward the next Target donation:* $84.12
Number of REDcard holders who have designated this school: 38
JACKSON LIBERTY HIGH SCHOOL
School ID:123979
The most recent Target donation to this school (March 2009): $216.23
Total of all Target donations to this school through March 2009: $827.02
Amount accumulated toward the next Target donation:* $87.28
Number of REDcard holders who have designated this school: 37
JACKSON MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL
School ID:73065
The most recent Target donation to this school (March 2009): $959.38
Total of all Target donations to this school through March 2009: $13640.41
Amount accumulated toward the next Target donation:* $300.07
Number of REDcard holders who have designated this school: 129
JOHNSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
School ID:73067
The most recent Target donation to this school (March 2009): $613.68
Total of all Target donations to this school through March 2009: $9264.57
Amount accumulated toward the next Target donation:* $197.67
Number of REDcard holders who have designated this school: 66
