Wonderful Celebration of Roosevelt Island Miyawaki Method Healing Pocket Forest First Birthday Party With iDig2Learn, RIOC, Lenape Center And Local Residents, Here’s What Happened
Donned in a turkey feather cape, Lenape Center’s co-founder and executive director Joe Baker welcomed the crowd with an opening prayer and happy birthday wishes for the pocket forest and all of us who visit it.
Mentioning the cape he wore was not ceremonial (not everything is ceremonial he said) but worn by woman and men for warmth and the feathers were also water repelling too. Joe was excited to know of our own temporary resident Turkey too. Lenape Center co-founder and director Hadrien Coumans used the drum to sing a song which the Mohawk Indians held for years when Lenape people, under threat of disappearance, taught the song to them for safe keeping. The message from the Lenape Center is that they are not stuck in the past but looking to the future. And the most hopeful thing is to find partners like those on Roosevelt Island to create good projects together.
Credit: Ghila Krajzman
Credit: Ghila Krajzman
Credit: Ghila Krajzman
Credit: Ghila Krajzman
Credit: Ghila Krajzman
Credit: Ghila Krajzman
Credit: Ghila Krajzman
Over sixty visitors enjoyed chocolate cookies by Pain d’Avignon and delicious bites by local Poppa’s Pantry, apple cider by Wengerd farm and enjoyed chocolate cake by local Andrea Jackson at Southpoint Park alongside NY’s first Miyawaki Method pocket forest. All ages wrote a forest birthday wish on a wooden tag or created leaf impression art using four of the 48 species of native plants found in the now 17 month old forest – Pin cherry, Red oak, Black willow and Quaking aspen. Neighbors were invited to take home community compost created by resident food scraps dropped with Haki Compost Collective each Saturday at Motorgate thanks to partners Big Reuse and Earth Matter.
We loved seeing white asters and goldenrod in the forest and found out they shade the baby oaks which allows them to grow into teenagers and surpass wildflower height.
Today so many neighbors sent in photos and delightful impressions of enjoying the event yesterday commenting on how much they learned from the opening ceremony and the forest tour after.
Thanks to the RIOC grounds department Tom Imperati and team and Bryant Daniel’s in Communication plus Coach Scot’s baseball player family volunteers and locals Janine, Rece, Susan, Zehra, Graciela, Arsalan, Maggie, Nick and Big Reuse’s Elena for making this birthday party a success. To many more years ahead!
An upcoming event being hosted by iDig2Learn that you’re invited to is the Roosevelt Island City Of Forest Day celebration Saturday October 4 at Lighthouse Park.
