Sophie Sonnenfeld Photo
Rock to Rock’s Kick-off on Saturday.
At a canoe cleanup last year, Peter Davis and Menunkatuck Audubon Society President Dennis Riordan pulled a dumped bicycle from the water. This spring, Davis and Riordan hope to help keep New Haven’s waterways, ponds, and sound clean by supporting the annual Rock to Rock bike ride.
Contributed Photo.
Peter Davis with a tire he picked out of Beaver Pond last year.
The Audubon Society set up a table at this year’s event kick-off on Saturday afternoon. The launch party to celebrate this year’s “Save the Seas” theme was held at the Newhallville Learning Corridor park at the corner of Hazel Street and Shelton Avenue.
Dennis Riordan (center) and Menunkatuck Audubon Society members.
The ride will take place on Saturday, April 24, with participants cycling, walking, or running across the region in support of their favorite nonprofit. Over 20 local nonprofit organizations are on the list for 2021. Nearly $2 million has been raised for these organizations over the past 13 Rock to Rock rides.
Between 8 and 11 a.m. on that day, guides will depart from Common Ground High School to lead groups on rides ranging from 20 to 60 miles. A staggered family ride and special activities will happen in Edgewood Park while older youth are invited to ride to the top of East Rock. Registrants can also raise funds for their chosen non-profit independently with ride maps downloadable from the website.
At tables in the back of the launch party, people snacked on cookies and hot cocoa, made fish art, and voted on this year’s Rock to Rock tee-shirt design. Paolo Francese, 5, and his sister Marcella, 7, both voted for an intricate octopus on a bike.
Attendees vote on the shirt designs.
Paolo, Marcella, and their parents, Erin and Dominic Francese, moved from New York City this year and will bike in their first Rock to Rock ride for Common Ground’s team.
Marcella said she likes to ride her bike and even rode along the Farmington Canal Trail with her dad this winter. Her favorite part was “seeing all the trees.”
Paolo with Marcella and Dominic Francese.
Erin Francese said it was harder for their family to go biking in New York. “I’m not as nervous around here. This is a much safer place and just the fact that they have the bike trail is so nice.”
Doreen Abubakar, who created the Community Placemaking and Engagement Network (CPEN), spoke about envisioning the transformation of the trouble spot once known as “The Mudhole” to the thriving Newhallville Learning Corridor. “You are standing in the learning corner with the vision of it becoming a community hub that engages people from all walks of life.”
Doreen Abubakar.
She said that support for this vision is what has allowed for new projects including the Urbanscapes Native Plant Nursery Project. The project which is a collaboration between CPEN and the Menunkatuck Audubon Society planted 450 native plants last summer to help butterflies, bees, and birds.
A new greenhouse for the plant nursery should be arriving soon and a new bicycle repair station was installed in the learning corridor on Friday.
The new bike repair station.
Through Rock to Rock, Abubakar said, she hopes to raise funds for a biking program to give away bikes and teach bicycle safety.
Save the Sound Assistant Director of Ecological Restoration Anthony Allen spoke about the importance of the Rock to Rock event at Saturday’s kick-off. “The theme for this year really speaks to the urgency and the hope that we see in our work across the region every day.”
Allen overviewed the sound’s history and highlighted the threat of climate change and rising ocean levels. “Sea level rise is a very real, very present threat to New Haven and to all coastal communities in our area,” he said.
Anthony Allen.
Allen said events like Rock to Rock bring hope as they recognize the intersectionalities between the full picture of injustice and the full scale of climate change. “We cannot separate and should not separate environmental justice from racial justice, economic justice, and social justice. They are all linked. We can’t pull one out and hope to build the resilient communities and the resilient ecosystems that we need to rise together and actually address climate change and its impacts.”
Mayor Justin Elicker praised the work Rock to Rock has done for New Haven: “This event is another example of how we are ensuring that people not only have the support and equity they need but in particular with the environment that we’re focusing on their health and we’re focusing on environmental justice.”
“The groups that you’re seeing here today have worked tirelessly not to just support the environment, but to make sure that it is inclusive and that we are fighting for people that haven’t had a voice,” Elicker said.
Click here to learn more about Rock to Rock or here to register for this year’s ride.
More info on related issues, organizations:
• New Haven Bioregional Group
• Six Times More Plastic Waste Is Burned Than Recycled
• Environment Connecticut
• Plastics For Change
• DEEP Municipal Wastewater FAQs
• America’s Public-Health Sewage Crisis
• Save The Sound
• Best Practices — Improving Sewage Treatment