Butterfly Gardens at Ward Pound Ridge

Suzanne Burger '82, Westchester coordinator for Yale Day of Service, (top, L) helps create a new garden at Ward Pound Ridge.  Other Yale-alumni volunteers included Dan Leonard '76, Barry Abramson '77, Raleigh Tozer '68, Adam Blair '84, and site coordinator Regina Possavino '01. (YWAA photos)

YALE DAY OF SERVICE, 2014

Yale alumni and other volunteers helped to spruce up a section of Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, the largest park in Westchester and one of four Westchester-coordinated sites on Yale Day of Service, 2014.  Regina Possavino '01, site coordinator, below describes a day of activities, as the Yale group returned for a second act after volunteering at the park in Cross River last year.  

Day of Service: Spotlight on Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, Cross River, NY

On Saturday, May 10, six Yale alumni (Suzanne Burger ‘82, Regina Possavino ’01, Dan Leonard ’76, Barry Abramson ’77, Raleigh Tozer ’68, and Adam Blair ’84) , as well as two high school students from Poughkeepsie Day School, participated in the Day of Service project at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in Cross River. Ignoring the threat of rain, the group worked diligently to create two new butterfly gardens near the park’s entrance and to clean up other garden areas near the park’s administrative area.

Ward Pound Ridge is known as the best location for butterflies in southern New York State, with as many as 83 species flourishing within the park’s boundaries. However, given the park’s expansive area (4,315 acres), it is difficult for most visitors to efficiently observe any meaningful number of these species.

Hopefully the butterfly gardens created by the Yale volunteers will better showcase this unique feature of the park to even the most casual of visitors going forward.

The finished product:  Yale volunteers created two new butterfly gardens at the park's entrance. (YWAA photos)