Annual Report

FY 2012 July 1st 2011- June 30th, 2012

Friends of Van Cortlandt Park Van Cortlandt Park, located in the northwest section of the Bronx, is New York City's fourth largest park

encompassing 1,146 square acres of land. The Park contains 800 acres of natural forest and woodlands, a 13

acre freshwater lake, and is the site of the historic Van Cortlandt House Museum, the oldest house in the Bronx.

Annual usership is approximated at 2.5 million visitors, who are drawn to the natural areas along with the

recreational facilities, i.e., two golf courses, an equestrian riding facility, an internationally famous cross-

country running course, and additional facilities which host sports such as cricket, gaelic football, soccer,

lacrosse, baseball and softball.

Mission Statement: The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park, an independent community based organization,

actively promotes the conservation and improvement of Van Cortlandt Park through

environmental education and restoration and enhancement of the Park, its forests and

trails.

Established: Founded in 1992-Obtained 501(c)3 in 1996

FY 12 Income: $282,656

Leadership: Eric A. Seiff, Chairman

Marcia Allina, President

Christina Taylor, Executive Director

Programs/Activities: Environmental Internship Programs (School Year and Summer)

Environmental Explorations! Teacher Workshop Series

Van Cortlandt Adventures School Programs

Junior Naturalists Afterschool Program

Volunteer Programs: Trail & Forest Restoration Projects and Garden Crew

Community Programs

Publications, Newsletter and Website

Participants Served: Over 5,100 participants in FY12

FY12 Funders: American Eagle Outfitters Foundation, Assurant Foundation, The Bay and Paul

Foundations, Clif Bar Family Foundation, Con Edison, Disney Friends for Change,

Hagedorn Fund, Jockey Hollow Foundation, Council Oliver Koppell, Lucius N. Littauer

Foundation, National Environmental Education Foundation, New Yankee Stadium

Development Fund, NYC Service, Laura J. Niles Foundation, Norcross Wildlife

Foundation, Prospect Hill Foundation, St. James Church, Morris and Alma Schapiro

Fund, Dr. Robert and Tina Sohn Foundation, and Urban Forestry Organization

Contact Info: Friends of Van Cortlandt Park

80 Van Cortlandt Park South Ste. E1

Bronx, New York 10463

Telephone: (718) 601-1460; Facsimile: (718) 601-1574

www.vancortlandt.org

Who Are the Friends? The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park, an independent community based organization, actively promotes the

conservation and improvement of Van Cortlandt Park through environmental education and restoration and

enhancement of the Park, its forests and trails.

The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park (FVCP) was founded in 1992 by a committed Bronx resident in response to

a New York Times article describing the impacts of declining NYC Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC

Parks) budgets on parks like Van Cortlandt that lacked wealthy benefactors or an organized network of local

support. She brought together neighbors and friends, and from a small beginning, FVCP has grown to play an

increasing role in maintenance of natural areas and community programming for Van Cortlandt Park. Each

year FVCP generates thousands of hours of volunteer support for forest and trail maintenance, trains thousands

of young people in environmental stewardship, and offers community programs to promote fitness and

environmental action.

From an initial project involving a small group of students who helped pick up litter and clear brush, FVCP now

provides a wide variety of educational, stewardship and community benefit programs. These programs include

an accredited training program for NYC teachers, educational programs for school groups, after-school

programs for middle-school and high school students, forest and trail restoration teams and a summer

employment program which introduces young people to environmental and green jobs as a possible career path.

Over the next several years, FVCP will be dedicated to the implementation of our Trails Plan which was

completed by the New York-New Jersey Trails Conference. The plan, finalized in December 2009, includes an

assessment, analysis, and set of recommendations to improve the woodland trails in Van Cortlandt Park. In

addition, FVCP’s community composting and gardening project provides fresh local produce for a

neighborhood non-profit to use in their meals program.

Programs & Accomplishments

The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park offer the following programs in the Park:

Environmental Internship Programs (School Year and Summer)

Environmental Explorations! Teacher Workshop Series

Van Cortlandt Adventures School Programs

Junior Naturalists Afterschool Program

Volunteer Programs: Trail & Forest Restoration Projects and Garden Crew

Community Programs

Publications, Newsletter and Website

In FY12, the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park accomplished the following:

Served approximately 5,178 people through our various programs which is the first time we have ever

exceeded 5,000 in a year.

We worked with 1,812 volunteers to plant 1,420 trees and shrubs and over 2,000 herbaceous plugs,

removed invasive plants and built over 100 feet of boardwalks throughout the Park.

Continued working with volunteers at our 400 square foot garden allowing us to donate hundreds of

pounds of vegetables valued at over $1,500 to local food pantries.

Worked with the NYC Department of Parks to implement a full-time Seasonal Trails Crew to help

implement FVCP’s Trail Plan from late March to late November 2012.

Our Board of Directors and Staff drafted a Three Year Plan for the organization.

Implemented plans to celebrate the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park’s 20th

Anniversary.

Raised over $13,000 from our 3rd

Annual Hike-a-Thon for the restoration of trails in VCP.

FY 12 Financials Income

Total Income for FY12: $282,656

Functional Expenses Total Expenses for FY12: $282,056

$10,000 and up

Anonymous

Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund

Prospect Hill Foundation

The Hagedorn Fund

$5,000 - $9,999

Franz and Marcia Allina

American Eagle Outfitters Foundation

The Bay and Paul Foundations

Con Edison

Daniel Fleming

Councilman Oliver Koppell

Lucius N. Littauer Foundation

St. James Church

Dr. Robert C. and Tina Sohn Foundation

$1,000-$4,999

Assurant Foundation

Frances Elston Beinecke

Clif Bar Family Foundation

Andrew Cohen & Dr. Heather Erhard

Disney Friends for Change

Jockey Hollow Foundation

Hunt Howell

Felicity Nitz

Manhattan College

Laura J. Niles Foundation

National Environmental Education

Foundation

New Yankee Stadium Development Fund

Norcross Wildlife Foundation

Eric Seiff

Urban Forestry Organization

Van Cortlandt Track Club

$500-$999

Bill and Paula Luria Caplan

Jon and Faith Deveaux

Shay & George Hirsch

Bradd Gold & Pat Khouri

Elizabeth & Reynold Levy

Susan Morgenthau

$250-$499

Anonymous

Judy Bernstein Bunzl & Nick Bunzl

Ethical Culture Fieldston School

Irene Fleming

Margot Guralnick

Horace Mann School

I.C. Levenberg-Engel

Robert & Dale Reich

Peter Smith & Christopher Rizzo

Paul Stoopack

$100-$249

Anonymous (4)

Bill Aguado & Kathi Pavlick

Jeffrey & Eileen Angelo

Apple Bank for Savings

Karen Armstrong

Janice Page & Steven Balicer

Richard & Susan Baldwin

Elizabeth Beim

Bob Bender & Loretta Nash

David & Robbie Bent

Robert Bertagna

Stuart Boynton

Bronx Arts Ensemble

Dr. Roscoe C. Brown, Jr.

Louise Callahan

Tom Carey & Esperanza Cano

Diana Cecil

Kevin Connolly

Ana DeLeon

Charlene Dubin

Mr. & Mrs. Robert Esnard

Jack Henning

Stephen Kaplan

LGS Specialty Sales, Ltd.

Linda Luca

Tami Luhby & Ed Purce

Margaret Groarke & Jordan Moss

Natural Resources Defense Council

Linda Cox & John Robinson

Betsy Schulz & Terry Roche

Robert Rooney

Lynn Schwarz

Bill Scribner

Jane Sokolow

Mike & Peggy Sormani

St. Patrick's Home

Peter Stand

Doris Spencer Teresa Grant Stoeth

Neil Tannenbaum

Tierney Fine Foods

Sybail Wailand

Stephen and Cathy Weinroth

$50-$99

Anonymous (2)

Karen Argenti

Hilary Baum

Thomas Bird

Zachary Bernstein

Dennis Burns

Robert Chiulli

Mayer Danzig

Robert Diamond

Lucretia Djivre

Victoria Gorski

Charlotte Fahn

Glenn Fleischman

Rosemarie Friedhoff

Friends of the Woodlawn Cemetery

Jorge Gautreau

Linda Hirlehey

Linda Koebner

Marcia Kucher

Michelle Land

Beatrice deVagvar & Anthony Martinez

Andrea Ramsey

Vincent Rizzo

Paul Rosenberg

Virginia Scott

Bernard Stein & Marguerite Adams

Tyrone Stevens

Melissa Dubroff & Lee Wasserman

$1-$49

Rayfield Abrams

Anonymous (15)

Michael Arnstein

Timothy & Deborah Bates

Mr. & Mrs. Gustav Bensen

Elena Billings

Steve Bornemann

Carla Borsotti

Al Brown

John Carey

Laura Carpenter

CJ Colon

Fred Daly

Sarah Hecht

Joan Holman

Jerome Park Conservancy

Joan Kuzniar

Mr. & Mrs. Lehmann-Haupt

Stephen Lipman

Karl List

Robert & Robin Lynch

Ben Unger & Kelly Mason

John McGrath

Ann & Richard McKeague

James McMahon

Helen Meltzer-Krim

Mr. & Mrs. Jean Michael

James O'Connell

Bernard & Lyla Olshan

Louis Pappas

Karen Pesce

Ethel Posner

Eve Proper

Ms. Abramowski & Mr. Quinn

Ed Ravin

Donna Rossi

Annette Sambolin

Marjorie Slavin

Barry Soicher

Mark & Mindy Sotsky

Clifford Stanton

Mark Stern

Thoman Family

Joanne Hirschmann & Elizabeth Wilson

Cortney Worrall

Ed Yaker

Anonymous Amount

Mr. & Mrs. Roger Michaels

School Memberships

Ms. Argyros Class at PS 94

Mrs. Capurro's Class at PS 81

Ms. Chiu's Class at PS 184M

Ms. Christina Harris' Class at PS 41

Ms. Dewar's Class at PS 41

Ms. Gautreau Class at PS 9

Ms. Green's Class at PS 41

Ms. Hayes' Class at PS 41

Ms. Jimenez's Class at P.S. 86

Ms. Kleinmann's Class at PS 344

Ms. Manley Class at PS 85

Ms. Matilda Goci's Class at PS 41

Ms. Maturi's Class at PS 41

Ms. Piotrowski's Class at PS 184M

Ms. Proto's Class at Visitation School

Second Grade Classes at PS 41

Ms. Terrell's Class at PS 41

InKind Support & Matching Gifts

Bronx High School for Law and Finance

David McDaniels

Manhattan College

Materials for the Arts

MillionTreesNYC, Toyota and NYRP

Mutual of America Foundation

NYC Civic Corps.

NYC Department of Parks and Recreation

NYC’s Summer Youth Employment Program

Riverdale Neighborhood House

Rockefeller Family Foundation

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Key Volunteers

Steve Atkatz

Build On

Daniel Citron

Charlene Dubin

Susan Kaplan

Griffin Sua

Audreamia Wardlow

FY 12 Supporters