Dear Friends,
Happy 30th birthday
Liberty State Park !
Summer, 2006
On June 14th, the great Park for The People behind Lady Liberty and Ellis Island reached its milestone birthday. Thanks is deserved by all supporters who have advocated for, guided, protected, contributed to, and volunteered to make LSP “free and green” !
We hope you’ll make a contribution to help us with our group's mission. Our Garden Volunteer Program welcomes everyone all year long on Saturdays from 8 am to 11 am. For information on gardening, on the fall Rutgers Master Gardener Program at LSP, or on our new Tree Tribute Program - for $300, a tree will be planted in honor or in memory of a loved on - please call Maria at 201-915-3418 or email her at schatzidog@earthlink.net
Our beautiful new LSP “T” shirt by artist Kelly Darr will be on sale at LSP & on website.
Sunday, August 6, at 2:00 pm is our “30th Birthday of LSP Members Barbecue”, being held again in the southern end of the Terminal Concourse. Please RSVP to above email address or call 201-792-1993. The Harlem Renaissance Orchestra will play at 5 pm.
To celebrate, the Friends had our first awards Luncheon, our second WALK and a part-fundraiser music festival, LibertyJAM which all set a positive foundation for the future.
Our awards were given to U.S. Senator Robert Menendez; Richard Sullivan; Friends’ co-founder John Tichenor; the late pioneer founder Ted Conrad, Audrey Zapp, LSP’s “Godmother”; Greg Remaud, Preservation Director of NY/NJ Baykeeper; Ethel Pesin, activist widow of Morris, LSP’s “father”, and Maria de Wakefield, LSP’s horticulturist.
We are very grateful to the Major Sponsors of our WALK,
Goldman Sachs, Metrovest, Provident Bank Foundation, and Liberty House
Restaurant. We also want to thank The Jersey Journal, Minuteman Press of Jersey
City, PSE & G for their generous support.
The park has come a very long way from the waterfront wasteland transformed into
a special waterfront park that renews our spirits, enriches our hearts, and
gives us strength.
It was civic activism and vision that created Liberty Park in an 18 year campaign; it was civic activism and vigilance that has guided and protected LSP; and it will be civic activism that will leave an open space park to deserving future generations.
The Friends, an all volunteer group, also has come a long way since our 1988 founding, and with your participation, we have earned the respect of the public, elected officials, and the NJDEP’s Division of Parks and Forestry. The Friends was honored to receive the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy’s “Theodore Conrad Preservationist Award” “in
recognition of their grassroots advocacy for one of the world’s great urban parks and for
their support of historic preservation and open space throughout the region”.
This is a peaceful time for LSP. However, there is growing opposition to the view- obstructing 9/11 Memorial design which had no public meeting. The design includes the Hill where the Terminal Plaza had been. The Hill blocks a sacred view of NYC skyline. Also in the design are 2 Walls, 200 feet long and 30 feet high. We have asked the DEP for a public meeting. Please look at the Hill & design and contact us with your opinions.