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Table of Contents
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Volunteer Highlights
Staff Additions
Outdoor Educator Spotlight
Staying Green during Halloween
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Our 2011 Riverbend Sponsors
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Wish List
| Riverbend is always looking for ways to improve our facilities and equipment. Donate today!
Most needed items: -office chairs - binoculars - 1 or 2 garden rakes (not leaf rakes) -wheelbarrow
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Our Mission
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Riverbend Environmental Education Center teaches environmental principles to children in Southeastern Pennsylvania through a direct connection with nature, inspiring respect for our natural world and action as aware, responsible and caring citizens. |
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Join Us for our Public Programs this Fall!
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Fall Foliage Hike
Join a Riverbend naturalist for a hike through Riverbend's woods as we enjoy this magnificent time of year. $5/ family
Saturday, November12th Life of the Lenape
Come and visit Riverbend's Lenape Village and learn about how the Lenape would prepare for winter and even make a pot for storing nuts. Then try your hand at making a shelter in the woods.
Please preregister- $15/family
Saturday, November 19th
Family Fun Night
Bring your family out for a night of natural fun at Riverbend. Join us for a lesson on the amazing adaptations of owls, and then we will prowl the grounds listening for any that make Riverbend home. Please preregister- $15/family
Saturday, November 19th
Science Nerd Series Part IV: Ornithology: Our Fine Feathered Friends
Riverbend is seeking to engage all of the science nerds out there in an exploration of some of the coolest scientific studies around.So come and spend the morning with fellow nerds, some very cool scientists, and Riverbend's natural classroom. Please preregister- $50/student
For more information, please visit our events calendar.
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Volunteer at Riverbend
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Volunteers are integral to our success. If you want to make a difference for children, the environment and your community, we have an opportunity for you to help. Hours are flexible depending on availability. To find the volunteer opportunity that's right for you, click on this link or call Jeanne Angell at 610.527.5234
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Around the 'Bend Quarterly Update October 2011
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A Message from the Executive Director
With the late afternoon sun streaming in, highlighting the golden hues of the changing leaves, I take time to pause from the myriad of tasks to be accomplished and look out my office window.  It is with that view that I am reminded of the simple fact that a beautiful day changes everything.
When I focus on the beauty of the nature that surrounds me, it makes me feel more peaceful. I am grateful for the simple pleasure of it. It's easier to forget those tasks with looming deadlines, the problems that need creative solutions and worries about the economy.
This is not new. This has been nature's gift for millennia. And it is a gift that we must continually receive to enrich our lives and ground us in something bigger than our to-do list. It is a gift we must reveal to our children to enrich their lives and to ensure a greener future.
Spend a few minutes out of your day to take a walk, eat lunch outside or take the children to a park. The splendor of nature is a gift we can't afford to ignore. I hope you relish the beauty and the bounty this season brings; that you allow a beautiful fall day to change everything.
 Laurie Bachman |
Shiverfest Success! 
Shiverfest was a big deal for Riverbend this year. In addition to the Program Book and Family event, we added the Shiverfest Gala. Guests had a wonderful
time at the Philadelphia Design Home Gala on October 1st. The setting was beautiful, the food divine and the company delightful. To see more please visit the picture gallery.
The family event on October 15th was also a smashing success with about 450 people coming out to enjoy the day as a guest or volunteer (or both!). The weather was perfect and everyone had fun. Volunteers really made the day come together and we send a heartfelt thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of the day!
Shiverfest is not just about fun and parties,it is an important part of Riverbend's fundraising. Thanks to the generosity of our 2011 Riverbend Sponsors, Shiverfest Sponsors and Patrons, Program Book Advertisers, ticket buyers and other donors we were able to raise more than $85,000 through special events this year. This goes a long way to helping Riverbend deliver high-quality environmental education programs and continue to be good stewards of the land we own. Thank you to everyone who supported these efforts!
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Volunteer Hightlights
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Vanguard Day of Service
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We couldn't provide you with beautiful trails on our 30 acre nature preserve without our volunteers!
Pictured above are volunteers from Vanguard who volunteered last month to help remove invasive plants and plant new trees.
Planting, mulching, and weeding is hard work -especially up and down the steep hills here at Riverbend! So much of the habitat maintenance and improvements are accomplished with the generous help of volunteers. We have been fortunate to host a number of corporate volunteer work days this fall, including groups from Vanguard, Nationwide Insurance, SAP, Johnson & Johnson and USIS. Additionally, students from Episcopal Academy and Villanova University have contributed service days here recently and Friends Central students will be spending three days here in early November.
Please contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Jeanne Angell at Jangell@riverbendeec.org if you would like to learn more about contributing your time and getting involved here at Riverbend.
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Staff Additions
This year we brought in two new staff positions to Riverbend.
 With our number of volunteers growing, we realized the importance of having a Volunteer Coordinator who not only worked well with people, but knew about local plant care. Jeanne Angell started at Riverbend as an Educator but has now joined us as our Volunteer Coordinator. Jeanne works with various volunteer corporate, school and scout groups to maintain and care for our 30 acre nature preserve. She has a Masters in Social Service Management from Bryn Mawr College and worked at Bryn Mawr for 12 years in various roles including being the Director of Community Service.
Lisa Matthews joins Riverbend as the new Administrative and Communications Coordinator after completing her Masters in Arts Administration from Drexel University. While studying nonprofit organizations, she also worked at Drexel as the Manager of Marketing and Recruitment for the Department of Performing Arts as well as the Department Assistant for the Department of Arts & Entertainment Enterprise. She will be assisting with various aspects at Riverbend including administration, development and communications. We are thrilled to welcome Jeanne and Lisa to Riverbend! |
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Environmental Educator trades the indoor classroom for the Outdoors
Mary Westlund was always a believer in incorporating science and environment lessons in the classroom. As a teacher at Russell Byers Charter School, she quickly realized that teaching about the outdoors in a classroom wasn't enough. That is when she came to Riverbend. "I like teaching at Riverbend because I get to do "hands on" science outdoors. That was something I couldn't do in a classroom." Now Mary is able to use her gift of teaching to touch many students in multiple grades from a variety of schools and communities. She really values the importance of being outdoors and protecting the environment and she can instill that value in the children who participate in Riverbend programs.
The best part for Mary is that she gets to teach outside! She focuses a lot of her time with our Outreach to Children/ Access to Nature Program in the Norristown School District. This program serves every 3rd and 4th grader in the school district (approximately 1,200 children). Third grade students study properties of water and watersheds in the spring and fourth grades students study ecosystems and their interactions in the fall.
Thanks to Mary and our other educators, children are learning how to be environmentally responsible and caring citizens!
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Ways to stay Green for Halloween
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picture from ehow.com
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Halloween is not only a fun time to trick or treat but also a fun time to go green. There are many ways to still decorate, trick or treat and celebrate without hurting the environment. Here are some helpful tips for staying green and having fun this Halloween: * instead of decorating with synthetic materials, use bays of hay, mums and pumpkins from your local farm. Even leaves and nuts around your yard will help decorate for the season without hurting the environment. * decorating with old sheets hung from the branches to look like ghosts or scarcrows made out of wood, hay and old clothes can look great and cost effective. *carve pumpkins with your children and then save the seeds to toast and eat. Even after Halloween you can scrap off the wax and use the pumpkin flesh to make pumpkin bread or pie.
*carrying pillowcases or reusable bags make eco-friendly alternatives to plastic bags or plastic molded jack o lanterns. By taking a few steps to stay green this Halloween, you are allowing future generation to enjoy this wonderful time of year! |
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