Dear Friends

We had a pretty active couple of days in the Park at the end of November, and I wanted to share more information about them with you all. It is a longer read, but I promise it is worth it.

Friday 11/21- On Friday morning we worked with 25 volunteers from PWC to clean up litter along Tredegar Street starting from the Belle Isle Parking Lot. Corporate group volunteers are an important part of how we serve the Park, and they have the added bonus of building stronger relationships between our local businesses and the environment around them. While there we ran into our friends from Keep Virginia Cozy, who were leading another cleanup event along the North Bank Trail. It was nice to see so many people working together to clean up litter in the Park.

Friday afternoon we hosted our inaugural “Friendsgiving” event for the JRPS staff. We try to provide a meal to the staff once per month. We usually do bagels and coffee so it doesn’t interfere with their work day. We decided to change it up with the holiday coming down the pike. This was a great opportunity to connect with the people who do the work in the Park, and for us to show how much we appreciate the work they put in every day.

Saturday 11/22- Saturday morning we were back at it. We met with about 25 volunteers on Belle Isle to work on a project coordinated by the Ops Crew and funded by FOJRP through a grant from the Access Fund. The goal was to remove the old railing and fence posts going up to the top of the quarry pond so that another group could build a new railing there in the future. The volunteers worked faster than we thought they would and had all of the posts out of the ground and loaded up into the dump truck with an hour to spare. We will be building the new railing in December, keep an eye out for information about signing up.

At the same time as that project was going on the Trail Crew was leading volunteers in a project at the 22nd Street parking lot. They were putting the finishing touches on the trail re-route we wrote about last week. This involved using a “bucket brigade” to move hundreds of 20-30 pound stones to fill the baskets that support the new trail. These volunteers were recruited by friend of the park Tim Barry. I was able to stop by and get some pictures of that project on my way back to Reedy Creek that afternoon.

Sunday 11/23- Sunday began at the 22nd Street parking lot where we met our friends from Keep Virginia Cozy for a massive annual Belle Isle cleanup project organized by Tim Barry. This was a special day for KVC because when we started the day they were only about 350 pounds short of their 1,000,000th pound of litter picked up across the Commonwealth since they started in 2017. Needless to say, they surpassed that goal on Sunday. Together the volunteers picked up more than 1300 pounds of trash and removed 4 scooters from the Park and river. I am always happy to be able to support this annual cleanup event, and I am proud that we have groups like Keep Virginia Cozy around to help keep the Park clean.

This weekend perfectly highlighted the important role that FOJRP plays in helping take care of the people and places that make the JRPS such an amazing place. We are not just about organizing volunteers or funding conservation projects. We work closely with Park staff to identify new ways to make the Park better, and then we figure out how to get them the resources they need to make it happen. This close coordination with the JRPS team is what sets FOJRP apart from other groups working in and around the Park.

We do need your help if you want to see more of this type of activity and support for the Park. We can’t function without individual donations, and we need all the help we can get right now as we work to build a more sustainable resource system for the Park. Please consider making an annual gift to support the James River Park System today. There are a lot of different ways you can show your financial support and you can read about them here- jamesriverpark.org/donate

I hope I will see some of you enjoying the Park this week. My family and I always do a “Black Friday” hike on the day after Thanksgiving, but we’re in the Park almost daily throughout the year. Thank you so much for your support. It is a great privilege to be able to help make the James River Park System the best place it can be.

See You in the Park!

Josh