Plumsted youths invited to join environmental group

BY ANDREW MARTINS
Staff Writer

PLUMSTED — As Plumsted Township Environmental Commission Chairman William Lewis and commission member Larry Witham stood in recognition of a project involving the declining American Kestrel (sparrow hawk), they realized the project could be more than an environmentally conscious effort with a local Girl Scout troop.

To Lewis, Witham and Bevin Esposito, it was the foundation for a new youth organization in the community that could create the next generation of environmentalists.

The Plumsted Youth for Nature and the Environment (PYNE) is ready to have its first meeting on Dec. 10. The meeting will take place at the Welcome Center, Main Street, New Egypt, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. For additional information, call Bevin Esposito at 609-758-1848 or Larry Witham at 609- 758-7755.

“We are hoping that a lot of kids [in town] have taken an interest in the environment and in nature,” Esposito said.

Described as a youth-led organization, PYNE’s mission statement is “to inspire children, youth and young adults to become sustainability leaders” in Plumsted.

Focusing on young people from sixth grade to the senior year of high school, with fourth- and fifth-graders serving as junior members, those who get involved with PYNE are expected to take a hands-on approach with local flora and fauna.

“[I hope kids will gain] an awareness and an appreciation of the abundance that the Plumsted Township community has to offer them, as far as the environment is concerned,” Lewis said.

Adult advisers will be present to ensure the participants’ safety, but the young people of PYNE will lead the projects, according to the organizers.

“We thought it would be interesting to have the kids do all of the work, to come up with ideas and run the events, to learn the process of what it takes to do something like that,” Witham said. “This will be their own organization to take in their own direction.”

Leading up to PYNE’s inaugural meeting, Lewis said the organizers have reached out to the Plumsted School District and to a local home-schooling group to promote and possibly to coordinate projects with curriculum.

“The schools have environmental clubs, but there are time restraints on the projects they want to do,” Esposito said.

“We are trying to make sure we are not duplicating what they are doing [in the school clubs] and also trying to pull in their team of kids who might want to participate after school,” Lewis added.

Lewis said he hopes young people who may not generally spend a lot of time outside will take a chance with PYNE.

“My overall goal for the whole concept is that we are not going to be like a Girl Scout or Boy Scout troop. We are really trying to capture the kids who do not participate in local sports,” Lewis said.

“I never played sports as a kid, but I was always outdoors. There are not very many opportunities for kids to get outdoors now where it’s safe. With this, there will be a safe environment. We want environmental issues and projects to be as organized as sports leagues. Whereas soccer games can bring out 70 kids, we would like to see that kind of participation [as well].”

The creation of PYNE comes on the heels of the 2012 Environmental Achievement Award that was presented to the Plumsted Township Environmental Commission by the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissioners in October.

“It was great for the environmental commission to be recognized by its peers [throughout the state,]” Lewis said. “It was recognition that we did something that was noteworthy and I think a lot of other environmental commissions sometimes are envious of the things that certain energetic commissions do to really get the youth involved.”

To ensure that PYNE gets off to a good start, the environmental commission has committed a percentage of its annual budget to fund the youth group, Lewis said.

Other fundraising efforts will come from the Ken Francis Environmental Stewards Commission, a nonprofit organization in New Egypt that deals with environmental issues.

According to Esposito, some of the potential projects could bring the group grant money from the state.

“We are finding that there are a lot more kids interested in the environment, saving the planet and sustainability,” Esposito said. “When they leave this planet, they want to leave it in a better way than when they came.”