Nature Center Awarded Grant from Enterprise Holdings

CAPE MAY – Long recognized for giving back to local communities, the Enterprise Holdings Foundation has found in the Nature Center of Cape May and its parent, New Jersey Audubon, organizations with a similar focus…. the local community. For the second year in a row, the Foundation has awarded the Nature Center of Cape May a grant intended to assist it in its tireless efforts in leading the way in preserving and protecting the fragile marine environment of Cape May Harbor and its surrounding waterways and marshes.
During the winter of 2007, Cape May’s beautiful harbor was littered with a dozen or more abandoned and derelict vessels. Not only were these vessels an eyesore, they posed a very real hazard to waterborne navigation and recreational activities on the harbor as well as a threat to the very health of the harbor and its inhabitants. It was the Nature Center staff that took the lead in adopting an active stance against this potentially catastrophic environmental disaster. Through their efforts of team building, hazard identification and public awareness, legislation was authored and secured that enabled this situation to be mediated. What has evolved is a community based event called Cape May’s Harbor Fest which continues to provide the ideal platform for educating the local community, school and civic groups as to the environmental and navigational hazards posed by abandoned vessels and environmental pollution of all forms.
The threat has not diminished. The effort to reach out, communicate and educate the community continues unabated and this generous grant from the Enterprise Holdings Foundation will help ensure that the Nature Center of Cape May along with its parent, New Jersey Audubon will not only protect, but will also continue to give back to its local community.