Category: Community Building

Save the Date! – Join Ewing’s Green Team and Arts Commission for a Discussion about the Future of the Arts in Ewing

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What Role would you like to see the Arts Play in Ewing?  Would you like to see Ewing become an Arts Destination?

Join the EGT and the Ewing Arts Commission for an open discussion about the future of the arts in our town.  When: Thursday, August 25th from 7:00-8:30 PM, at the Ewing Community Center [ESCC], 999 Lower Ferry Road.

It’s no secret that music, theatre and the arts bring people together. There is a correlation between a strong arts participation and presence, and prosperity in a community, economically, socially and individually. Art attracts visitors which helps the local economy, people want vibrant communities that offer lifestyles of culture and recreation which attracts more residents, and the more residents brings new businesses and that brings in new investment into the community. This cycle creates growth and stability and a more sustainable heathy lifestyle for everyone.

Even before our recently published arts survey we knew that Ewing had many talented artists in a variety of fields and had venues such as the 1867 Sanctuary for musicians to perform, but can anyone say that Ewing is recognized for its Creative Assets? What are Ewing’s Creative Assets?  What sets Ewing apart from Lawrence or Trenton culturally or artistically? What do you think about an Annual Arts Festival?

Arts and culture strategies help reveal and enhance the unique identity and character of a community.  What special people, places or activities make the Ewing community distinct?  What cultural challenges does our community face? What associations/organizations/networks are regarded as most important for defining the value of our community; what are the most successful in linking people together?

This should be a public discussion with everyone who has interest in making Ewing the best place to live, work and play to participate in how to promote the arts in our town.  So, please join in for a discussion about the Arts in Ewing.

“The arts are not a frill. The arts are a response to our individuality and our nature, and help to shape our identity. What is there that can transcend deep difference and stubborn divisions? The arts. They have a wonderful universality. Art has the potential to unify. It can speak in many languages without a translator. The arts do not discriminate. The arts can lift us up.” –Former Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan

Date: Thursday, August 25th
Time: 7 – 8:30 p.m.
Location: Ewing Senior and Community Center [ESCC], 999 Lower Ferry Road, Ewing.
Cost:  Free and open to the public

Light Refreshments Will Be Served

Visioning 2 Event Set for Monday Night – Jan 12th

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Dear Ewing Neighbor,

The year 2013 marked the Ewing’s first Sustainable Jersey Bronze certification, a recognized milestone for NJ towns that are forward moving. In 2014, the Ewing Green Team (EGT), working in partnership with Township Administration, wanted to capitalize on that as well as other Township successes by gathering Ewing citizens to look ahead and prepare for coming challenges and to anticipate the many opportunities that await our town  by creating a multi-year vision and action plan for sustainability in Ewing!

On June 7th at the EGT’s first Community Conversation: Preserving Our Past, Transforming Our Future, we began a journey together to thoughtfully chart a course for our future.   That morning was lively and exhilarating and reminded us all why we chose to live in Ewing – wonderful neighbors all working hand in hand to envision the best future for our town.  Led by a pair of sustainability champions from Cherry Hill, we worked to Preserve Our Past, evaluating our township as it currently exists and identifying the aspects of our community that we most valued.  We then envisioned how to Transform Our Future, imagining where we would like our community to be in ten or twenty years.  All of this was to create a shared vision that would form the basis for developing goals and completing actions that move the community toward a more ideal, sustainable community.   As one participant stated:  “I truthfully wanted to skip it when I saw what a beautiful day it was, but I’m so glad that I went!  I think this will be a very beneficial process for Ewing, if it is communicated to and shared with the community.”

During the months following we refined and amplified the suggested actions believed most realistic for Ewing that best reflected citizen ideas.  Now on January 12, 2015 we are pulling the effort together.  Many of you contributed ideas and experiences during 2014.  Now on Monday we invite you back to continue the journey with us and help make the community vision a reality.  Monday night’s program will feature an overview of the highlights of our Sustainability Plan, a fusion of the collective values and aspirations that have been expressed by you all during the Visioning process.  This community wrap-up session will include also break-out sessions where you will be encouraged to further hone specific doable actions, suggest partnerships, additional sub-actions, individuals or businesses to contact, specific educational topics, etc.

Our Sustainability Plan can become a great resource for our town by allowing us to peer into the future and lend shape to the unknown. Together, through the Vision, we have been able to plan for the future of our town with imagination and thoughtful wisdom. We laid the foundation for what Ewing will look like 10 or 20 years in the future including perhaps a Ewing that will make it into NJ Monthly Magazine’s bi-annual Best Cities/Towns to Live, a front porch community where people no longer retreat to their backyards but commune more with their neighbors, where block parties for neighborhoods to come together are common, and a town that is more walkable and bikeable, and one that has more community plantings and more community gardens.  These visions and many more are addressed throughout the Vision Plan.

We invite you to journey with us to the Ewing of the future, as envisioned by you, our neighbors.

The Ewing Green Team

All Conversation documents are located at https://ewinggreenteam.org/conversation-documents.

You may reference the current draft plan at the bottom of the page at: https://ewinggreenteam.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/egt_strategic_plan.pdf.

IMPORTANT: We request that you please REPLY NOW if you are coming, to help us ensure sufficient seating and refreshments.

Date: this coming Monday January 12, 2015
Time: 6:30 – 8:30 pm.
Place: Community Room of the Ewing Senior & Community Center at 999 Lower Ferry Rd.

Build a Scarecrow This Fall and Win Cash!

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The Ewing Green Team Promotes Recycling With its First Annual Scarecrow Building Contest

Demonstrate your recycling smarts and creative skills this fall to win ca$h!   Make a one-of-a-kind scarecrow and enter  the Ewing Green Team’s first Annual Scarecrow Contest this October.  The contest is open to all Ewing individuals, school groups, families, youth groups, service clubs and business groups. Winners will be judged on originality, artistry and the creative use of recycled materials. All scarecrows must be constructed of at least 80% recycled, reclaimed, and/or reused materials.  Materials like glue, nails, string, or other means of attaching items will count toward the allowable 20%new materials.  They must be named to help describe/identify the creative theme and must also be 4-5 feet tall (without stake) and 2-4 feet wide.  The Township will provide frames for the first 15 registrants who request one.  Please call Lisa at 609-620-0722 for information about pick up.

There will be Prizes!

Mayor Bert Steinmann will judge (schedule permitting), along with the Ewing Arts Commission. There will be prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd of $100, $50 and $25 gift cards.

Judging will be on Saturday, October 25th at 2:00 at the Ewing Community Gardens at Whitehead Extension Road.   So, please join us for hot apple cider and refreshments as we gather together to see who can make recycling into art whiling have fun and celebrating the fall season.

For registration and details check out our contest page at www.ewinggreenteam.org/scarecrow-contest/ or if you have any questions, please call Lisa at 609-620-0722. The deadline for registration is October 20, 2014.

The Work of Community Building Continues

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The July 30th monthly Ewing Green Team meeting was an eventful one, as Ewing residents began, along with the Ewing Green team, the process of  building on the ideas generated the June 7th Community Visioning Day.  The meeting’s purpose was to formulate practical actions regarding the goals that residents articulated in June and a full roster of participants indicated their interest in the task at hand.

Led by Lori Braunstein and Natalie Barney, our facilitators from Maga Sustainability, an Action Prioritization Matrix was created which contained a summary of all of the key performance actions selected by the meeting participants on June 7th as well as additional actions in the area of Community Engagement and Waste/Recycling from the meeting on July 30th.  It contains, in addition, a rating by the members of the July 30th audience, of the “doability” of the actions listed in those two categories.  The key performance actions for the additional categories will be fleshed out and rated during the August and September Green Team meetings, so be sure to attend.

For all who might be interested, all documents generated from the Visioning process can be found on our website under Conversation Documents.