An Evening at Drumthwacket

Just got home from the New Jersey Governor’s Environmental Excellence Awards held at Governor Corzine’s residence, Drumthwacket in Princeton.

OK, so the Governor was off solving some important state crisis and couldn’t attend, but Mark N. Mauriello, Acting Commisioner of the NJ DEP assured us that it wasn’t because he wasn’t dedicated to environmental issues. Anyway, it was a beautiful event and it was a real honor for Cherry Hill Township to have won the award for “Safe and Healthy Communities”. I looked at the list of applicants and it was quite impressive to have been chosen from the group of other well known municipalities who have been leaders in sustainability. One of the judges made sure that we knew that Cherry Hill was singled out from other towns because of our grassroots, community effort in the form of Sustainable Cherry Hill.

The event, which was co-sponsored by NJCAT (NJ Corporation for Advanced Techology), was held in a tent attached to the mansion. We got to tour the first floor of the house and were served a delicious buffet meal and wine reception. The awards ceremony was very inspiring with honorees ranging from two young brothers who created a newsletter and website to hep save a beloved lake near their home to The College of New Jersey, who put together a scholar’s group of 65 student leaders on campus to work on a “domestic peace corps” to others who work tirelessly to protect NJ’s rivers from development and pollution. It was wonderful to see Mayor Platt go up to receive the award and he mentioned me, Jen Kelley, Communications Director, Dan Keashon and Business Administrator, Maris Kukainis and stressed the role of collaboration in the “greening” of our town. Take a look at the photo of Jen with the terrific poster she made to illustrate CH’s Green Action Plan.

Thank you to Rhea Brekke of NJCAT for facilitating my presence at the awards tonight. Check out the photo of us by the beautiful fireplace!

December 4, 2008 Posted in: Uncategorized