What I’d really like…

It’s really nice when someone asks me what I want for my birthday or Bar Mitzvah. Here’s my answer:  It would mean so much to me if you’d consider donating to one of these organizations in honor of my becoming Bar Mitzvah.

MillionTreesNYC

When I was told that I was required to do 13 hours of community service work for my Bar Mitzvah, I was a little intimidated. I had (and still have) a passion for making my environment greener and air cleaner by planting more trees. I didn’t know where to start with this idea. But luckily, with a little research, we found out about a great organization called New York Restoration Project (NYRP). This organization was founded by Bette Midler a little more than 15 years ago. They have a program called MillionTreesNYC with an ambitious goal to plant a million trees in NYC by 2017. I think this is a great organization because it does a great job educating its volunteers about what its goal is and it encourages and includes its volunteers very well. Working with them for my Bar Mitzvah project has made the work seem more like fun. I plan to keep on working with NYRP after my Bar Mitzvah. To donate to the MillionTreesNYC initiative and be responsible for planting one of our city’s new million trees, click here.

New York Restoration Project

New York Restoration Project is a non-profit organization founded by Bette Midler with the mission to clean and green New York City. For years it has worked with the City  to save vacant  spaces from becoming new, big buildings and transform them into beautiful community gardens and parks instead. The biggest one they’ve created is called Swindler’s Cove, which was previously a dumping ground. NYRP cleaned it up and turned it into one of the most beautiful community parks in NYC. (You can see photos of me working there on the Nate-ure Boy page.) Swindler’s Cove and so many other green spaces in NYC came out of Bette Midler’s  dream for a cleaner, greener New York City. This is my dream, too. If you share this dream, maybe you’ll check out NYRP. To donate now, click here.

Amber Waves Farm

Every summer my family goes to Montauk, Long Island. This year, for the first time, there was a weekly farmer’s market there.  Here we met two really cool women named Katie and Amanda who, a couple of years ago, single-handedly got a grant from the Peconic Land Trust and founded their own 8- acre, not-for-profit farm in Amagansett, a nearby town. Between Amber Waves Farm and their other not-for-profit, The Amagansett Food Institute, Katie and Amanda’s goal is to teach the community about healthy living through fresh local organic produce. They have also, by the way,  reintroduced the growing of certain produce in Long Island, such as wheat. (That’s where the name of the farm comes from.) Each week, when I’d go to their stand, they would show me some new type of vegetable that they were growing and they would usually let me taste the veggies. If you care about the education of healthy living and eating, this is a great organization to donate to. I would really appreciate it if you did. Click here if you’d like to.

American Museum of Natural History

It was easy to pick the American Museum of Natural History for my Bar Mitzvah party. It has always been one of my favorite places to go in New York City. And the party space is great — you’ll see. But the most important reason is because of everything that the Museum does for our planet. I’ve been to so many of their great exhibits. But I know they also have great lectures and teaching programs for kids and adults…their scientists go all over the world doing research for and about the environment… basically, everything they do is about protecting our natural resources and saving our Earth. Thank you so much if you decide to support their efforts on my behalf. Just click here to donate.