Meyerson is New President; Directors Elected

Herb Meyerson of Milford, PA, has been elected President of the Friends of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area for 2010-2011.

Herb has been an active user of the national recreation area with kayaking, biking and hiking. His enthusiasm for the outdoors and the Friends is evident daily. He is a retired, small business owner and sales manager/trainer for Pitney Bowes;and US Army veteran. His volunteer work has been with county commissioners on land use for recreation; member Pike County Arts and Crafts; ACA; Lehigh Valley Canoe Club; Scenic Hudson; and past crew for Sojourner Truth Ferry Sloop.

Elected to the Friends Board of Directors are Patricia Dolge, Esther Irwin and Sue Keppel, all of Dingmans Ferry; Virginia Manbeck, Shawnee-on-Delaware; Natalia Petrianyk of Hackettstown, NJ; and Ken Sandri, East Stroudsburg, PA.

The elections took place at the Annual Membership Meeting and a subsequent board meeting late in 2009.

Officers for 2010 are: Vice President, Virginia Manbeck; Secretary, Sue Keppel; Treasurer, Pat Dolge; and past president, Gail Wershing.

Continuing directors are: Brenna Bry, PhD, East Stroudsburg; Gene Crawford, Montague, NJ; Jackie Garges, Bushkill, PA; Bill Irwin and Michelle Marone, Dingmans Ferry; and Anita Ray, Milford, PA. Jen Wycalek of Walpack, NJ, is an active Director Emeritus. Membership chair is Joy Licotta Inserra.

To join the friends, click on the Join button on our home page—or email us at friendsofdewa@aol.org with your name and address so we can send you a form.

National Park Foundation Grant Helps Friends Promote Lecture Series

BUSHKILL, PA—A grant from the National Park Foundation (NPF) in Washington, D.C., to the not-for-profit park conservancy, Friends of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (Friends), has enabled the group to sponsor and promote the 2009 Lecture Series.

Now in its ninth year, the lecture series includes five evening lectures and two daytime Family Fun Days that explore the recreational, natural, and cultural history of the Delaware River Valley. Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area’s Interpretation and Education staff arranges the series.

The NPF grant has enabled the Friends to spread the word about the lectures with advertisements and ample distribution of flyers to school children throughout the region. The goal this year was to increase attendance at the lectures and Family Fun programs through more widespread publicity.

Nearly 100 people attended a May Family Fun Day program on honeybees. The other topics this summer, such as “Gardening with the Birds and Butterflies” and “Reading Barns & Telling their Stories,” have drawn increased audiences to the park programs. Photographers Anita Ray and Gordon Emrich will conduct the next lecture, “Waterfalls and Beyond: Photographers' Visions of the Park,” on Saturday, October 17, at the Bushkill Meeting Center on Route 209. The whole family will enjoy the fall Family Fun Day, “Investigating Owls,” on November 14.

John J. Donahue, Superintendent of Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, and Gail Wershing, president of the Friends, each expressed their gratitude to the National Park Foundation for its support. The National Park Foundation is the national charitable partner of the National Park Service. Through private philanthropy, NPF has been helping to preserve and protect America’s national parks for over forty years.

After a lecture in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area this summer, Gavin Peregrin, age 5, had a question for presenter Amy Hoffman of Bowman’s Hill Preserve:“What attracts the butterflies to the flowers?” He received his answer and continued the discussion.

Information about the park and all of its programs can be found at www.nps.gov/dewa or by telephoning 570-426-2452. Information about the not-for-profit Friends organization is at www.friendsofdewa.org. The National Park Foundation is at www.nationalparks.org.