Fall 2016 & Year-end Summary

Fall 2016 & Year End Summary

NYC H2O wrapped up our fall season of free outdoor field trips for New York school children on December 2. Our STEM education programs provide a scientific and historical understanding of New York City’s water cycle and infrastructure. We engage students at eight inspiring water infrastructure sites and wetlands in the five boroughs:

NYC H2O gave 67 free Water Ecology & Engineering Field Trips this fall reaching over 1,800 students mostly from underserved Title I schools. In 2016, 3900 student participated in 141 field trips, nearly double last year’s total! NYC H2O thanks our committed and inspiring field guides for making these field trips an exceptional educational experience for students.

To support these field trips, NYC H2O significantly increased its individual, corporate and foundation fundraising from $70,000 in 2015 to $100,000 in 2016. Your donations helped make this possible along with those of the sponsors listed below. You also helped us with beach cleanups, readying Plumb Beach and Lemon Creek for student field trips.
​
Below is a chart showing the number of field trips NYC H2O has provided over the last 3 years.

Field Trip Pictures: Reservoirs and High Bridge

​Number of Field Trips and Students Reached
284 Field Trips
7,950 Students

Map of H2O’s ​119 School Partners in the 5 Boroughs

Field Trip Pictures: Shore and Wetland Sites

Our 2016 field trips were made possible by the generous support of these sponsors. 

A thank you to all the individuals who supported our free school programs through donating, by participating in NYC H2O adult activities such as kayaking, biking, and walking tours, and by attending our teacher education programs. Thanks to the 70 individuals who helped us meet our matching grant goal of $10,000 made possible by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation. This grant opportunity ulitimately raised $30,000 for NYC H2O.

We are growing in part due to word-of-mouth from educators. Please help us meet this demand for field trips by donating now.

​​Other Highlights of 2016

Lectures
NYC H2O presented three lectures at Hunter College with distinguished speakers.

• ​Steve Duncan and Marit Larson spoke about daylighting Tibbetts Brook.
• Ken Chaya spoke about the nature that abounds in Central Park.
• Eric Sanderson and Catherine Sevitt Nordenson spoke about the evolving landscape of Jamaica Bay.

Over 700 people attended these lectures!

Beach Cleanups
400 volunteers helped us with three beach cleanups at Lemon Creek and Plumb Beach removing 2.5 tons of debris. These cleanups were generously sponsored by Coca Cola, JP Morgan Chase, Mitsubishi and the National Park Service.

We also thank our community partners who provided dozens of volunteers for the beach cleanups: NY Cares, Boys & Girl Scouts of America, Natural Resources Protection Association of Staten Island, NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, Stuyvesant High School, NYU Law School, Cornell School of Art Architecture & Planning, NYU Steinhardt School of Education, Kingsborough Community College, Grover Cleveland High School, Maspeth High School, St. Joes by the Sea, St Clare’s, Staten Island Museum, Staten Island Tech, and NY Harbor School.

Ridgewood Reservoir
NYC H2O also organized two community listening meetings about the Ridgewood Reservoir on January 17 and April 19. Stay tuned for more meetings in 2017.
We are conducting on ongoing survey about the reservoir. Over 300 people have taken the survey and the results so far can be seen here.

On behalf of the Board and staff of NYC H2O thank you for your support & Happy Holidays!

Sincerely,
​Matt Malina, Director