Youth Involvement: Clean Up The Ramapo River

Each Thursday in April, the Green Patch will highlight a way that you can get involved with environmental efforts in Mahwah.

MEVO, the Mahwah Environmental Volunteer Organization, is planning a cleanup of the banks along the Ramapo River in honor of Earth Day on April 23.

The group’s newsletter explains the reasoning behind choosing this project as the Earth Day event.

It says “this main resource of Mahwah has become polluted and in disrepair, and we, as people and as environmentalists, must do something about it.”

“We are hoping to draw a large amount of volunteers from Mahwah High School and Ramapo College,” Sarah Spett, MEVO’s Mahwah Town Coordinator, said.

Spett also said that the cleanup will not stop along the township’s borders. 

“We are organizing to have three cleanup locations along the river in Mahwah, one location in Oakland, and one in Suffern. We are currently in the process of getting in touch with the Department of Public Works in both Suffern and Oakland to develop a volunteer base from both of those towns.”  

MEVO kicked off it’s springtime volunteer activities this month by readying over 100 recycling bins, most of which were donated by the Mahwah Department of Public Works.

The group’s newsletter says it will be using the bins in the Apr. 23 river clean-up effort.

MEVO was founded in 2008 by then MHS student Eric Fuchs-Stengel as a youth organization aimed at cleaning up the township’s environment. Since then, it has achieved non-profit status and begun expanding to other towns throughout New Jersey. 

While based in the high school and expanding significantly in Ramapo College, the volunteer group is not limited to young people. 

“Our goal in Mahwah is to unite Mahwah High School, Ramapo College, and the people of Mahwah to evoke change for the environment,” Spett said.

To get more information about becoming involved in the clean-up, visit MEVO’s website, and email mevovolunteers@mahwahevo.org.