Dobbs Ferry Seventh-Grader Bests A Field Of Nearly 200 To Win First-Ever Rivertowns Earth Month Scavenger Hunt
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By Jeff Wilson—
For the entire month of April (plus a few days before and after), ecology-minded citizens from Sleepy Hollow down through Hastings-on-Hudson formed teams and participated in the first-ever Rivertowns Earth Month Scavenger Hunt, a multitude of environmentally-oriented activities (e.g. removing invasive plants, composting, attending Earth Month events—all on a points system) designed to benefit the planet. On May 7, the event’s organizers, the Rivertowns Intervillage Sustainability Network (RISN), held an awards ceremony at the Irvington Senior Center.
Irvington Sustainability Director Charlotte Binns, who masterminded the contest and plans to repeat it, spoke glowingly of its success. “Enrollment in this was off the charts,” she said. “Almost 200 teams registered, almost 4,000 different ‘stewardship missions’ completed.” Irvington Trustee David Zwiebel described it as “… perhaps the most collaborative thing ever done between the villages.”
But it was the individual efforts of 12-year-old Mark Roshak of Dobbs Ferry, team captain of the Eco Warriors (his parents plus close friend Jayden Rofano), who outworked the competition by completing all 134 missions and snagging the $500 first prize. The Warriors’ whopping score of 86,300 points buried their closest competitor—Irvington’s Trustees Gone Green had 74,700—and no doubt contributed mightily to Dobbs Ferry’s winning the $3,000 prize for highest point total for a village collectively: 671,700. (Irvington was the runner-up with 556,200, winning $1,000.)
In an interview with the Hudson Indy, Mark Roshak shared his experiences. The seventh-grade middle-schooler recalled the exact day – March 20 – when he passed a poster advertising the scavenger hunt on Main Street in Dobbs Ferry. “Oh, that sounds cool,” he thought. After spotting an identical poster a short distance down the street, Mark’s interest was further piqued. “Let me see what things I have to do,” he said to himself as he studied the list of “missions:” answer local ecology trivia, compost, help people plant, buy and plant shrubs. Mark signed up, confident he could meet these challenges, then lined up the backup he knew he’d need: his best friend Jayden Rofano (who joined in mid-April), and his parents (Peter and Laura), who would drive him around and help with the missions. “[Mom and Dad] didn’t know what they were getting into,” Mark admitted, but once they understood the worthiness of the cause – helping the environment – and the goal of participating in as many of the activities as possible, they got on board.
Mark’s partial work history in the scavenger hunt is a case study in perseverance and parental support. After breaking the ice with the ecology trivia questionnaire, the Roshaks tackled one of the less labor-intensive missions. “Mom drove me to Mom’s Organic Market (in Rivertowns Square) to recycle some eyeglasses,” said Mark. (600 points) Next, Peter drove his son and Jayden to Springhurst Elementary School where they volunteered at the Green Team Trash Bash, hauling away unused wood and plastic tubing from the Habitat Restoration Project (1000 points). Then it was on to the Helpsy bin at the old Ardsley DPW, where Mark donated clothes. Days later he spent an hour clipping vines with the Vine Squad on Cyrus Field Road (1000 points) while Laura removed trash. (He would be de-vining with the Squad again a week later.)
Mark visited Rivertowns General to buy soap at the Refill Room, which specializes in zero-waste household products. A third generation of Roshaks even joined in. “Me and Grandma (sic) drove to the site of a public beach in Sleepy Hollow that’s been closed for 50 years,” Mark recounted. They only had to take a picture of the locked gate to earn 600 points. “But it was a 20-minute ride each way.”
Then it was back to hard labor, pulling out the invasive Japanese knotweed at Juhring Nature Preserve [in Dobbs Ferry] (1000 points), before putting compost in a bin at the [Dobbs Ferry] Presbyterian Church. “On weekends I scheduled everything I could, then spent 30 minutes doing this, 30 minutes doing that…sometimes we were busy from nine to five, sometimes nine to seven,” Mark recalled. “I was there for every mission.” Binns echoed his assertion, adding, “[Mark] is like the mayor of the Rivertowns, Everybody knows him.”
Who better to verify this claim than a real mayor? “He certainly did an amazing job!” gushed Irvington Mayor Arlene Burgos, a member of the runner-up Irvington Trustees Gone Green team. “I enjoyed running into him at events – especially once we recognized each other and called each other by our team names. When I’d see him, I’d say, ‘Hi Eco Warrior!’ I was very excited that he won.”
“It was a really fun experience, helping out the environment, pulling out big plants,” said Mark. Peter praised his son’s leadership qualities. “It was really 95% Mark and his motivation and determination that led to us winning,” he explained. “The rest of the team was really just moral support, accompanying Mark on these missions.”
Back at the ceremony, organizers handed out an assortment of gift baskets and gift cards from local businesses to teams that showed creativity and variety. For example, a prize went to the Beelievers for “The Team Photo That Made Us Laugh” while the “Greatest Participation With Kids” award went to the I Like Caterpillars team.
Dobbs Ferry intends to use its prize money to fund 3 different projects related to Perking up our Parks: Waterfront Park–9/11 Memorial renovation with native perennials and shrubs; Chauncey Park–deer fencing for a new Miyawaki mini-forest; and Gould Park–a new pollinator garden on a pathway island. Together, these efforts will enhance civic space, ecological health, and community use of local parks.
For more information about the contest, go to www.ResilientRivertowns.org
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