Join a HarborLAB Google Group!

group

Maybe you have that missing piece of the puzzle to make a HarborLAB program click together! HarborLAB has peer-to-peer email list Google Groups to achieve our goals in Education, Fleet and Infrastructure, Funding, Outreach and Communications, and Safety and Public Events. We encourage volunteers and prospective volunteers to join groups that match their interests, either as active participants or to monitor and stay informed. Feel free to receive updates in digest form, but we hope to keep traffic low and purposeful.

Click on the hyperlinked group names below to sign up!

Education:

Sharing information and ideas to grow and improve HarborLAB’s educational mission and programs in the harbor and watershed (Neversink Reservoir). Share ideas for curricular integration and public programming, educational grants, and other means of serving educators. Join >

Fleet and Infrastructure:

Help build, select, and maintain HarborLAB’s boat fleet, gear stocks, dock, and shoreline infrastructure. Join >

Funding:

Share tips, plans, and ideas for funding HarborLAB, and keeping us on budget. This is the email list for you if you’re interested in seeking sponsors and applying for grants, producing fundraising parties and events, and maintaining fiscal transparency and accountability. Join >

Outreach and Communications:

Help grow HarborLAB through outreach to potential and existing volunteers, community and nonprofit partners, government agencies, and media. We’ll create new website features, a newsletter, postcards, literature, and other ways of building community. Join >

Safety and Public Events:

Help plan and organize HarborLAB’s public events and maintain safety (best practices, equipment, training) across programs. Join >

Skyline Unwind, 9/20

 

Photo by David Kistner of Green Apple Cleaners.

LIC East River waterfront towers, including TF Cornerstone and Rockrose developments. TF Cornerstone is a Founding Sponsor of HarborLAB and Rockrose is also a sponsor. Photo by David Kistner, CEO of HarborLAB sponsor Green Apple Cleaners.

Unwind from the week with a mellow skyline viewing paddle on our tandem kayak fleet. This paddle is for those who are interested in volunteering for HarborLAB and would like to get to know our volunteers, other potential volunteers, and about out programs.

In short, the theme of this and a few other upcoming paddles is:

RSVP both on Facebook and by emailing volunteer@harborlab.org under the subject “SKYLINE UNWIND 9/20” with a list of your skills (not only nautical or outdoorsy!). We also value educators, artists, bookkeepers and CPAs, lawyers, programmers, writers, mechanics, woodworkers, nurses, linguists, graphic designers, gardeners, and more!

If you can, fill, and sign this ADULT waiver ahead of time:

http://harborlab.org/waivers/

We’ll meet at Natural Frontier Market (12-01 Jackson Ave Queens, NY 11101) at 6PM (triangle table) and walk over to our launch (http://harborlab.org/location-and-directions/) for a short paddle to enjoy the skyline. We’ll go against a middling East River current (between 1-1.7 knots) and see how far we can get by hugging the Brooklyn waterfront. No pressure because there’s no destination. Then we’ll drift back, chatting and enjoying the view and catching the sunset as we return.

Please wear nylons and other quick drying materials, and bring a change of clothing.

Natural Frontier Market has snacks, drinks, sunblock, and other necessities, including a nice bathroom (there’s no bathroom at the launch). Please support this local business and its neighboring LIC restaurants, museums, and galleries.

East River sunset. Photo by Ray Tan.

East River sunset. Photo by Ray Tan.

Newark Riverfront Revival!

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Come help Newark reclaim its riverfront for recreation and education! Along with other water access allies, we’re answering the call for help to make this a great introduction to the estuary. This is an event HarborLAB volunteers can happily assist but it’s not managed by us.

Here’s our Facebook event for a HarborLAB contingent of volunteers (including a Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance offer for a free ride to Newark from Manhattan):

https://www.facebook.com/events/637262316284756/

More here:

http://newarksriver.wordpress.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Newark-Riverfront-Revival/174945239233944

We need not bring our boats to this event! The Newark City government will offer 10 of the county’s sit-inside (decked) kayaks for public use for three hours. They need volunteers to welcome the public and help keep the program safe and smooth on the storied Passaic River.

On the water, you should have experience rescuing paddlers in decked kayaks. Here’s a video posted by one of our suppliers (http://www.oldtowncanoe.com/resources/safety_and_rescue/kayak_rescue_methods/), while some of our volunteers and CUNY faculty board members have received training through the American Canoe Association, nonprofit paddling groups, and outfitters like NY Kayak Co.

On the dock, life guards and first responders are especially valued. Volunteers with experience fitting life vests, giving basic paddling tips, bracing boats for entry and exit, and other forms of assistance would be of great help.

If water quality permits responsible use of sit-on-top kayaks, HarborLAB will gladly return with its own tandem fleet, team, and learning tent soon. We can also bring canoes!

Let’s make friends across state lines and the reaches of the estuary!