SPRING 2021
SUMMER PROGRAMS: ON THE ROAD AND ON CAMPUS of the day will be spent completing problemsolving and teambuilding initiatives that will help students build their 21st century skills. With our Blairstown Campus absent of students six days a week, it was an easy decision to bring back Family Camp for one more summer, providing a safe place for families to play and explore together in a pristine environment. Because vaccines are available for older youth, we also decided to bring back our slightly reimagined Leaderin-Training Program designed to help 16- and 17-year-olds develop job and college readiness skills. This summer we will welcome eight LITs to our campus for a full six weeks. They will assist our year-round staff in executing a robust Family Camp program and host Summer Bridge students each Friday.
This spring, PBC facilitators worked with Great Oaks Legacy Charter School teachers at their Newark site, (above) which will be one of the sites for this year’s Summer Bridge Program. ow can the Princeton-Blairstown since there are few vaccine options approved Center (PBC) best serve students yet for use in children (potentially coupled from historically marginalized with high levels of vaccine hesitancy), we communities during the summer of felt bringing students to Blairstown for 2021, many of whom have not yet returned overnight programming in small cabins was to in-person classrooms, in a not-yet- too risky. Yet we knew from last summer post-COVID world? This was the question and fall that doing programming in the our staff and Board grappled with earlier outdoors with social distancing was this year. Our answer was to leverage our safe for everyone. flexibility, creativity, science-based safety precautions, and field-tested experience. So, we’ve decided to bring our program (Monday through Thursday) to We knew for sure that kids from these our students’ communities in Newark communities need a safe place to connect and Trenton – in parks and school with others and nature to help heal the yards with a day trip to Blairstown on many traumas and challenges they’ve faced Friday for some boating, hiking, and over these past 15 months. Additionally, barbeque. Students will spend 90 minutes almost all kids have experienced a learning a day engaged in hands-on Literacy and gap during the pandemic, so summer STEM learning that focuses on food justice, academic enrichment activities are environmental justice, human rights, author needed more than ever. We knew virtual voice, diversity, community, communication, programming was not the best option, and and character traits/analysis. The remainder
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By mid-August, when Family Camp and Summer Bridge are over, we expect to welcome back some of the more than 100 groups that visit Blairstown each year to help their students and schools create climate and culture norms and to build a strong sense of belonging and inclusion. We can’t wait to welcome them back! Our programs are provided free or at a reduced cost for young people from historically marginalized communities. Like all nonprofit organizations, the Center has been hit by the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and it could be several years before we get back to our prepandemic numbers served. If you can, please consider a more generous gift to enable our staff to provide academic enrichment and heal some of the trauma our students have experienced throughout the pandemic. With gratitude, Sarah Tantillo, Ed.D. Board Chair
Pam Gregory President & CEO
In Memoriam - Joseph P. Moore
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oseph P. Moore, the second Black administrator at Princeton University and a long-time public servant and proponent of civil rights, passed away in April of 2020 at the age of 78.
Former Trustee Joseph P. Moore during his time as assistant dean at Princeton University.
This spring his family hosted a memorial service at PBC, a place with special meaning for Joe. A tree and plaque were dedicated in his memory outside Cabin 8 – coincidentally, adjacent to the very first accommodations he and his brothers stayed in as Princeton Summer Camp campers. Joe grew up in the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood of Princeton, along with his ten brothers and sisters, attending Witherspoon Street School for Colored Children until the Princeton Public Schools were integrated in 1948. He, his siblings, and many other friends from the neighborhood also spent countless summer days at the Princeton Summer Camp in Blairstown. His son, Jerry Ingram, said “As a child, he and his family and the kids in the community would go to the camp – [Joe] kept going into his teens, and eventually became a
counselor. I know he had great experiences there and had a deep understanding of the importance of what the camp offered.” Joe later graduated from Princeton High School and went on to earn an undergraduate degree at Central State University in Ohio and a master’s degree from Newark State College (now Kean University) in New Jersey. In 1969, he returned to Princeton and was soon named Princeton’s assistant dean of students. His time as assistant dean spanned several of the early controversies around integrating Princeton’s student body, and his experience mentoring young people played an integral part in the integration efforts. His former spouse, Daphne Williams, said they often opened their home so that students of color would have a place to feel welcome given the difficult social climate of the University at the time. “We hosted a soul food dinner for students monthly – our home was open, so they could feel relaxed in a home environment.” Jerry recalled that there often seemed to be “a steady stream of students always coming by the house.” During his tenure at Princeton, Joe and Carl Fields also formulated and pitched the idea of the Third World Center (now called the Carl A. Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding) to the University’s trustees to better support and connect students of color and promote cross-cultural understanding.
Members of the Moore family gathered in April 2021 to share stories and dedicate the memorial site.
introduce and re-introduce friends, family, and neighbors to the work of the Center through many avenues, including his infamous Memorial Day reunions at the site. Both of Joe’s children shared memories spending time with (and without!) their father at PBC, including daughter Lia Brim’s recollection of Joe teaching her to swim in Bass Lake, and Jerry’s memories of playing ping-pong with him in the basement of the HQ. In a piece in Princeton Alumni Weekly in 1978, Joe was quoted about the work of the Center, saying: “How does canoeing down the Delaware relate to survival in Newark or Trenton?’ he asked. ‘The challenge of this facility is to make the experience a camper gets here one that is relevant on a continuing basis. It is not an easy challenge.” Now that his memorial site at Blairstown is complete, part of his legacy will eternally bear witness to the ongoing efforts of the Center to connect young people to the outdoors, and to connect the lessons they learn at PBC to the challenges they face in their schools, in their communities, and beyond.
In addition to his years as assistant dean at Princeton University, Joe also served the Princeton community as an elected official on the borough council, where he eventually served as the borough’s police and fire commissioner. During these years, he also served on the Board of Trustees of the Joe is survived by his brother William Moore, Princeton Environmental Center (as PBC and by his two children, Lia Brim and Jerry was named at the time), and continued to Ingram.
PBC Elects New Trustee Bruce A. Ellsworth, Ph.D. currently serves as Director for Fibrosis Discovery Chemistry at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), where he engages in research to discover new medications to improve the lives of patients and serves as the BMS representative on the Board of Trustees of the Research and Development Council of New Jersey. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the State University of New York at Oswego, a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley, and completed postdoctoral work at the University of California at Irvine. Outside of his role at BMS, he is a member of the American Chemical Society and the Princeton Area Masters Swim Club. He has served on the Board of Trustees for the Nassau Swim Club; is a Founding Trustee of the West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance; and has served as a member of the West Windsor Mayor’s Task Force on Bicycle and Pedestrian Issues. 2
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Update
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ast June, in our Insight e-newsletter, we shared PBC’s initial strategy and plans to stand up to racism and injustice. We are pleased to share some of the steps we have taken and where we are headed in the foreseeable future.
identity, agency, belonging, and engagement, explored as expressions of the five core SEL competencies. Using three challenge levels, the Center’s facilitators aim to help everyone move upward on the DEI continuum.
Strengthening ongoing anti-racism and diversity-related professional development for the PBC staff, student, and Trustee communities. Since last June, staff has engaged in monthly dialogues, workshops, and trainings around topics related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. PBC hired an experienced DEI consultant to lead staff through conversations around brave space; privileges, advantages, and assumptions; and microaggressions and recovery from missteps. Our staff have Participants put their hands in a circle to kick off a also worked with community leaders and teambuilding initiative on Campus. experts to better understand the traumas that marginalized youth experience, their Providing oversight, direction, and socialization influences, and how structural recommendations for resource racism negatively impacts cities like Trenton. allocation to issues related to organizational progress and challenges PBC’s Board of Trustees has been engaged around DEI. in work reviewing a case study to better A DEI Task Force was created to provide understand PBC’s DEI strengths, weaknesses, ongoing, active attention to diversity, equity, opportunities, and challenges. The Board and and inclusion. The task force will monitor Program Committee also reviewed PBC’s organizational progress and bring issues mission statement and updated it to better to the Board for consideration as needed. articulate PBC’s commitment to historically It will also focus on PBC’s overall progress marginalized young people. in achieving DEI goals, making or endorsing resource allocation recommendations, and Last winter PBC’s Director of Programs call out areas of concern. Particular attention and one of our Senior Facilitators will be paid to governance; programming; researched, revamped, and created a hands- talent management; compensation; hiring; on DEI curriculum using SEL frameworks. awards, iconography and recognitions; and Anchored in the premise of justice-oriented amplifying voices of color on our staff, board, community, it addresses issues of culture, and in the outdoor field.
Increased transparency and accountability around DEI progress with our stakeholders. A new DEI page on our website affirms our commitments to DEI and reports on progress. The page highlights PBC’s role as a leader in integrating its program in the 1940s and our history of diverse leadership. Our team developed land acknowledgement and accessibilty statements that are shared when groups visit our Blairstown Campus. Staff also added pronouns to their email signatures to help create a more welcoming environment for all gender expressions. Targeted programming focused on climate justice, food justice, and environmental justice designed to engage students as advocates and change agents. PBC’s program team refined the curriculum that uses the Center’s garden to teach about and inspire activism in the realm of food justice and access to wholesome foods. They also developed 15 inquiry-based environmental education units aligned with Next Generation Middle School Standards. Finally, our Director of Programs revised the Center’s Summer Bridge offerings to deliver an intentional social justice-infused STEM, literacy, and SEL curriculum. There is so much more that PBC can and will do to make the Princeton-Blairstown Center a more inclusive institution better equipped to serve young people, providing them with the skills to transform their communities. We welcome your partnership and support as we move forward with these critically important initiatives.
Links to Youth Golf Outing Set for October 8, 2021 Save The Date! The sixth annual Links to Youth Golf Outing fundraiser will be held on October 8, 2021 at the Fox Hollow Golf Club in Branchburg, NJ. Revenue from the event funds PBC’s award-winning Summer Bridge Program, designed for young people from historically marginalized communities and offered free of charge. This year’s event will feature course competitions and prizes for first, second, and third place teams along with a student speaker and a silent auction in the postgolf program. Sponsorships and early bird pricing for registrations are now available. Lunch and dinner are both included.
Advisory Council Member Chris Van Buren (second from left) and his team take a break during Links to Youth 2020.
For questions, or to sponsor or register, please contact Maren Morsch via email at mmorsch@princetonblairstown.org. 3
Danielson Lodge and a New Wash House
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ormerly known as the Headquarters (HQ) Building, Danielson Lodge was one of the first buildings built by hand by Ivory Watters, the original caretaker of the Blairstown Campus. Over decades of use, thousands of young people have spent time there gathering, playing, working, and sleeping. It was the hub of activity for years and remains an integral part of Campus today. Headquarters was renamed in 2009 for the late John Danielson Lodge’s upgrades include a new accessibility ramp, accessible bathrooms, and a geothermal HVAC system. Danielson ’58, to honor his many years of service to PBC Danielson was winterized to convert it to 20 participants on that side of Campus. as Faculty Advisor, Executive Director, into a modern interior space that can Each side of Twins has a restroom with Development Director, and Trustee, as well sleep up to 24 students and chaperones one toilet and one shower, but these as for his huge impact on the organization. year-round. The sustainability highlight of facilities are insufficient to adequately the renovation is a geothermal HVAC accommodate the number of students In 2019, the Center undertook efforts to system, which relies on 4,900 linear and chaperones using Twins. A new wash renovate the nearly 80-year-old building, feet of antifreeze-filled tubing. Stored at house will include three toilets and three with the intention of creating a more depths below 10 feet, the liquid inside the showers on each side. The building, now flexible space and using environmentally tubing maintains a constant 50-degree under construction, will be equipped with sustainable systems to ensure the building’s temperature and is then circulated out sustainable siding and winterized and use for 80 more years and beyond. of the lake to the Lodge via a pump heated to provide year-round facilities.The system, making it extremely efficient for entrance to each side will also include a the heating and cooling systems to reach water bottle filling station so participants the desired temperature. Families who will have ready access to potable water have stayed in Danielson for Family Camp during programming. have been wowed by the changes, and we look forward to the day when Danielson A key component of PBC’s ability to will again be busy with Summer Bridge pursue these projects was the creation students and other participants. of a fundraising initiative to support the costs of construction. Susan Danielson, As occupancy at Blairstown has increased John’s daughter and a PBC Board member, exponentially over the past five years, Ev Pinneo ’48, and Chris Van Buren ’84 are more and more regular programming serving as the co-chairs for the initiative is taking place on the East side of Bass and have led the effort, which has already Lake. The two restrooms on that side raised more than $230,000 in gifts and of the property are located in the Hunt pledges from individuals and foundations. Environmental Education Center and only Pledges may be paid over three years in accommodate two people. When large installments that are comfortable for the groups are across the lake using ropes and donor. If you are interested in making challenge courses, singing and reflecting at a gift to support this project, please Friends Fire Circle, or stargazing on the contact Meredith Murray, Director football fields, there is often a long line for of Development & Communications, the facilities.Also, the recent renovation of at 609-921-0070 or mmurray@ A contractor installs the tubing for the Twins Lodge has provided lodging for up princetonblairstown.org. Danielson Lodge geothermal system.
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A Look Back in Time: Tigers Football at Blairstown
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The 1955 Princeton football team on the Blairstown football field (behind modern-day Twins Cabin) practicing during the August preseason.
or more than two decades, from the late 1940s through the early 1970s, the Princeton Tigers football team spent their preseason training at PBC’s Blairstown Campus. The Campus was perfectly situated to give the team undistracted time to prepare for the season by running plays and developing team bonds. According to Bob Casciola ’58, who played for the team and later served as a coach, “Blairstown was a great way to bring the team together, especially to incorporate the new sophomores who had played together on the freshmen team and have them become part of the varsity squad.” Two practices a day –“two-a-days” – spaced out by lunch and coaching meetings were the norm for the two to three weeks the team spent in Blairstown. Ellis Moore ’70 said the first day he arrived in Blairstown he and the other sophomores headed straight for a swim in Bass Lake and had fun goofing around with teammates. But, it showed their novice status because they were too tired to perform well for the two-a-days the next day. After that, they kept swimming to a minimum! Preseasons in Blairstown also meant scrimmage games with East Stroudsburg (PA) University or on at least one occasion, the Marines from Quantico, VA. After weeks of training and the scrimmage game, the team was ready for the traditional season opener against Rutgers each September.
because he spent his summers working at the Blairstown Campus for the Princeton Summer Camp, so he knew his way around and was a little more comfortable with the surroundings than were some of the other players when they first arrived. While some teammates were uncomfortable with the rustic lodging, Hewes thought it was an idyllic place. However, everyone recognized that it was a place that brought them all together. “It was a great place to
was the psychological building of the team. We learned how to work together, how to fight for each other.” Bob agrees, “It brought the whole team together because everybody experienced the same pressures and demands.” Princeton was unique in offering offsite preseason training. It provided an opportunity for teammates from all classes, sophomores through seniors, to
The team sits together in their practice attire, watching game movies in the HQ Building (now Danielson Lodge).
concentrate on football,” he said. “It built spend an extended time living, playing, an esprit de corps.” learning, and eating together in a way that would not have been possible on campus Ellis jokingly said, “it was the best place in Princeton, because each man would I ever hated to be,” referring to the have gone off to his own room and eating beautiful surroundings juxtaposed with club at the end of the day. Head Coach the team’s hard work there. “What we Dick Coleman saw the value in this and Hewes Agnew ’58 brought a different did there, more than anything else – the said, “The rest of the season is built on perspective to preseason in Blairstown unique and true core of Blairstown – what we accomplish at Blairstown.” 5
Princeton-Blairstown Center 13 Roszel Road, Suite B109* Princeton, NJ 08540 (609) 921-0070 www.princetonblairstown.org
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Princeton Office President & CEO Pam Gregory Director of Finance & Administration Nicole Nilsson Director of Development & Communications Meredith Murray Communications & Special Events Manager Maren Morsch Accounting Assistant Gina Grieco (part-time) Blairstown Campus Director of Programs Mark DeBiasse, D. Litt. Assistant Director of Operations and Staff Development Adam Faller Food Services Manager Robert Buarotti Operations Manager Pat Karl Program Managers Ron Franco (Senior PM) Holly Lynn Facilitators Tabassum Alam Handy Pierre Facilities Director Jody Zengulis Facilities Assistants Jacob Bruch John Haney
BOARD OF TRUSTEES Chair Sarah Tantillo, Ed.D. ’87 Vice Chair Shawn Maxam, MSW Secretary Rev. Alison Boden, Ph.D. Treasurer Bruce Petersen ’79 Trustees Minda A. Alena Christina Bailey Russell DaSilva, Esq. ’76 Susan G. Danielson, Psy.D Bruce A. Ellsworth, Ph.D. Praveena Joseph-de Saram *10 Claudia Franco Kelly, MBA Will Miller Andrew Morris, MBA Christopher S. Moser Jessica Perry Suman Rao Heather E. Reilly Karen Richardson Donald R. Seitz, MBA ’79 Aline Silva Derek Simpkins Warren M. Stock, MBA Advisory Council Eleazar Adjehoun Mark L. Antin, Esq. Jon Dec ’13 Jason K. Griffiths ’97 Sari Chang Guthrie, R.A. ’84
Rochelle R. Hendricks Kevin C. Hudson ’97 James B. Huffman, P.E. ’77 Al Kaemmerlen ’62 Anna Kats Meryl Kessler, Esq. ’84 Yvette Saeko Lanneaux, Esq. ’88 Lauren Meehan ’08 Richard Ober, Esq. ’65 Jason Pedraza ’11 George Cooper Rudolph III ’63 Sally Jane Ruybalid ’22 Pamela L. Simpkins, MBA Seema Thomas *08 Daniel Tjondro ’20 Christopher Van Buren, CFA ’84 Pam Walker Will Wild ’13 Honorary Trustees Janet Smith Dickerson Joan Doig Jane Fremon ’75 Rev. David H. McAlpin, Jr. ’50 Everard K. Pinneo ’48 Dr. Robert J. Rivers, Jr. ’53 Peter T. Smith President & CEO Pam Gregory