Three days of hot work at Shamrock Park, Lemon Bay, and the Hermitage

The last weekend in June was the occasion for the some 60 young people from Ringling College  to join volunteers from the Friends for a weekend of hard work.

On June 29 and 30, FOSCP hosted over 60 students from the Ringling College of Art and Design’s PreCollege Perspectives Program, which offers talented high school students a chance to live the art school experience and take on the rigors of a college-level visual arts curriculum. Students from around the country and abroad come together to study the arts in a four-week intensive, residential program while earning college credit.  Each summer, the programs includes service projects, and this year, many students participated in clean up activities at Shamrock Park, Lemon Bay Park and the Hermitage Artist Retreat.

 

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Friends of Shamrock Park, Gopher Tortoise advocates joined the students in doing some clearing at Shamrock Park and also at the Hermitage in Englewood. The Friends of Lemon Bay worked at Lemon Bay Park in Englewood as well. Here’s a brief update from Terry Redman, with some photos:

Hi All — excuse the blanket update — trying to keep everyone in the information loop!

On the east side of the road we piled two 20′ long pieces of
steel, a steel ring about 4′ in diameter, concrete, steel cable and some
other trash.

We filled the dumpster and have about another dumpster load sitting in
the grass. Do you want to have another dumpster delivered or have the
county’s claw truck pick up the pile of limbs?

[clearboth]We removed 10 wheelbarrow loads of shell — let me know if you think the
wet land area is OK or needs to be reduced further.We had 35 volunteers on site today and we have another opportunity for
Aug. 8 if we want to participate. At the Hermitage, we removed the mother-in-law tongues, the false
ink-berry and Brazilian Peppers on the dun, all the trash, about 50% of
the small Austrian Pines and all of the rosary pea.[clearboth]

Thanks to George Tatge and Ed Wolfenbarger for coming out on a Saturday
and cutting down the exotic trees. Thanks to FOSCP Board member Russ
Johnson for being there all three days — this could not have happen
without his support/work!

And a BIG THANK YOU to the Ringling College staff, RA’s, students and
volunteers to making today successful (and fun)!

Thanks to Babe’s Hardware for donating the ice, to FOSCP for donating
the pizza, drinks and tools, to the Ringling College for all their
support and dedication to our community. More later….TR[clearboth]