The Princeton Varsity Club, Athletic Department staff, Student-Athletes, Coaches, Academic-Athletic Fellows and Isles, Inc. teamed up for a day of learning, fun, construction and yes, destruction (at least demolition) for a great cause.
Isles, Inc, is a Trenton-based environmental and community development organization started by Marty Johnson ’81 (baseball, football) and other Princeton students and faculty in 1981. Volunteers worked on the renovation of a beautiful, mostly vacant, circa 1895 former textile mill on the Trenton – Hamilton border. The 6.5 acre site is being converted by Isles into a mixed use, “green” village. It will include offices for public interest and environmental organizations, a training facility for inner city youth, homes, artists’ studios, and other uses.
Because of the unusually strict “green building” approach embodied in Isles’ redevelopment plans, Princeton University’s Civil and Environmental Engineering fall course titled Sustainable Design CEE focused on the mill’s unique opportunities and challenges.
Volunteers, or “mass constructors” worked in a few areas, including: interior and exterior demolition, painting (clean, latex, low odor), and landscaping. In addition to good physical work, student-athletes and volunteers also learned about community development from one of the leading organizations in the region and country through a presentation during lunch.
Numerous sport teams combined to make the community service initiative a success and in the process contributed in excess of 500 man hours to the project. Teams who participated include: Football, Women’s Basketball, Women’s Ice Hockey, Women’s Squash, Field Hockey, Women’s Swimming, Women’s Tennis, Women’s Cross County and Track & Field and Men’s Swimming & Diving.
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