Ginger a treasure to Roebling
By:Vanessa S. Holt
FLORENCE – A local dog has proven you don’t have to be human to clean up and take care of the environment.
Ginger, a 3-year-old golden retriever in Roebling, has been picking up recyclables in Roebling Park for the past year with her owner, Ann Frankel.
"She’s a lovely dog," said neighbor Loretta Varga, who had noticed the pair picking up bottles and cans in Roebling Park.
Whenever Ginger made a trip through the park, said Ms. Varga, she left no litter in her wake.
Ms. Frankel adopted Ginger from another family about a year ago.
"She came from a household with four children," said Ms. Frankel. "It got to be too much for them with the children and the dog."
When her husband came home with a "surprise" a year ago, she was greeted by Ginger and was a little skeptical at first.
"I gave it a couple days," said Ms. Frankel, who had not wanted to get another dog since she her last pet, a cocker spaniel, had died. After a few days, she realized she didn’t want Ginger to go anywhere else.
"I started taking her down to the park to walk her," said Ms. Frankel. "Her greatest thrill was coming across empty bottles or soda cans; she’d pick it up and want to come home."
She reinforces Ginger’s recycling habit with treats, but the dog had a natural instinct to "retrieve" these particular kinds of items, said Ms. Frankel.
"She picks it up and she’s quite happy," she said. "She did it naturally; she just made a beeline for them."
Ms. Frankel moved to Roebling with her husband about four years ago, after a lifetime in Brooklyn, traveling over the bridge that John A. Roebling Co. built countless times.
"This is quite a change for me, to be able to participate in local events," she said.
The Frankels moved to Roebling after their children had grown up, and after looking at a number of locations in New Jersey, they found Roebling and fell in love with the village.
"I just love it here," she said. "It’s like being back in Brooklyn because it has rowhouses so your neighbor is close to you."
For the first time, she said, she feels able to really get to know her neighbors and become involved with activities in the community.
She joined the Roebling Historical Society after learning more about the history of the village.
"We always crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, and took it for granted," said Ms. Frankel. "It was nice to find out where the history started, to realize how much Roebling was involved with bridges and other things."
No one wants to encourage careless people to leave cans and plastic bottles on the park grounds, but if anyone does, Ginger will be there to patrol the grounds and keep the neighborhood beautiful.