#riverambassadors

The River Ambassadors had their last field trip last Monday! Thanks to Paul and The Academy of Natural Sciences, our Ambassadors were able to participate in electrofishing. It was a fun and new experience for everyone, and despite the heat, the Ambassadors had the best time. Some even said it was their favorite trip!

The River Ambassadors geared up in waders and gloves, and were equipped with nets.

The first group headed out into the water! While Ambassadors hold buckets and nets, our group leaders from The Academy of Natural Sciences sent soft electrical currents into the water. The electricity safely shocks them, causing them to float up to the surface belly up. Once revealed from their hiding places, the River Ambassadors scooped them up in nets. 

We took turns getting into the water and hiking Chester Park! 

We caught so many cool things! There were a lot of eels, but we still found some other species, such as crayfish! 

The River Ambassadors bravely handled the fish, with some even petting the eels!

It was an awesome experience. 

The day finally came yesterday, Saturday August 17th, to present our River Ambassador Eco Exhibit! Throughout the summer, River Ambassadors chose their favorite photos to represent their experience throughout the program. Each Ambassador provided a caption for their photo, as well as some items to showcase what they do from day to day. Our lovely curator Dan designed and created the Exhibit, and we think it came out beautifully! Thank you Dan!

Please come by the Independence Seaport Museum to see all their hard work!

Our Eco Exhibit can be seen right in our River Alive! gallery. 

The theme to our Eco Exhibit is “(well you see) What Had Happened Was...”. A phrase first said by Romeo on the first day of training, it became a fun inside joke for all River Ambassadors! 

River Ambassadors’ friends and families were all invited to join us for the opening of the exhibit. 

Thank you to all of you who support our River Ambassadors and this program! 

Each River Ambassador gave our audience a presentation of what their photo and the program as a whole meant to them. 

Taniyah!

Kadidia!

Brianna! 

Mara!

Carmen!

Andy!

Antonee! 

Jose!

Germilus!

Isaiah!

Nevaeh!

Romeo!

Aretha!

Jaden!

Kennedy!

Roxan!

Bryanna!

And Naseem!

As well as celebrating the River Ambassadors, we all said goodbye to AWE Fellow Kayla as she heads back to college! Kayla has been involved with ISM for the past 5 years, and this summer she joined us again as our AWE Fellow. She has played such a great part in helping supervise, educate and organize our River Ambassadors over the summer. We will miss you Kayla! Thank you for everything! 

We also began to say our goodbyes to Mayci, who will be leaving to pursue her master’s in Environmental Science at Villanova. The River Ambassador program was handed to Mayci three years ago, and she has done a standup job of making it a fun, enriching program. We have Ambassadors who have been with her all three years, which proves how incredible she really is. We will miss you Mayci!

Glen Foerd hosted us in this beautiful, historic mansion! 

Everyone gathered around for each other’s presentations. 

Our River Ambassadors start off their presentation discussing their daily duties, such as giving lab programs in the Citizen Science Lab and Drive Thru Science window. 

It was fun to tour the mansion!

After presentations, Ambassadors split off into groups to create their collages. Their collages were made of photos collected over previous exchanges, as well as journal entries. 

After lunch, everyone got to get on row boats or kayaks! It was much cooler on the water.

River Ambassadors Aretha and Kadida hanging out in a tandem. 

Later on in the week, the River Ambassadors hosted our River Basin CleanUp! Ambassadors teamed up with volunteers in rowboats and kayaks to help clean up the basin. The most unique and largest find was a rotting public trash can! 

“When we visited Urban Promise, and we did a couple of things. We walked around the woods, went canoeing and did group activities. I believed it was a fun experience. Even though it started raining badly and we had to rush inside, we all still managed to unite and have fun together.” Amairani 

As we head into August, we would like to finally introduce the other half of our River Ambassadors. It’s been a crazy month of July, full of field trips, fishing, water testing, mussel and wetland maintenance, and more! 

“My name is Kennedy. I was born on January 25 of 2003. I have always been known for having an energetic and outgoing personality. I love a good joke thus enjoy laughing. To be honest, I laugh at anything. I always try to make time for my family, friends, and myself of course. My favorite activities are volleyball, cheer, and I enjoy reading a good book. I am an aspiring criminal defense lawyer who desires to travel across the world. leaving behind a memorable name for myself. To talk more about myself. I am a strong young woman who takes pride in herself, and what I have made of myself so far. And I plan to continue to strive for my goals.”

“My name is Nevaeh and I am in 11th grade now. I like flowers. And I am happy to be a River Ambassador.”

“Hi my name is Jose and I am going into 10th grade next year. My favorite subject is History, and I am looking forward to the rest of the summer.”  

“ Hi, I am Kadidia and I’m a second year river ambassador. I wanted to participate in this program again because I enjoyed the experiences and the people I had worked with before. I enjoy learning about new things especially within the science and history subjects and I hope to become a pharmaceutical scientist in the future.”

Romeo is another one of our returning River Ambassadors! He will be a senior in high school this upcoming year. We are happy to have him back. He is definitely our resident goof ball. 

This is Carmen’s first year as a River Ambassador, but she has experience with ISM an an EAGLE. She is always eager to try things out! If the camera is pointed at her, she is always ready with a big smile. 

Andy is another of our returning River Ambassadors! We are thrilled to have him back. He will also be a senior in high school this upcoming year. You can always catch him playing Pokemon Go! during down time. 

Aretha is a Returning Ambassador and an upcoming senior. She is a hard worker and always on her A game. We are excited to have her back. She is a great team leader and gets her peers to work! 

This is Bryanna’s first year as a River Ambassador, though she is a previous EAGLE. She is incredibly bright and adventurous. She doesn’t seem to mind to get in the water and mud! 

“On July 25th, 2019,

An exchange program between Independent Seaport Museum, Bartram’s Garden, and Urban Promise took place. From this picture, we were at the ISM learning about the history of the Delaware River. Our partners were given a task to clean the river as they took action in our interactive screen game. In the end, the river was purified and aquatic life was brought back by the powers of many who took action in the cleaning.

It was their first-time experience rowing in a kayak, we all had fun struggling to move around at first. Some were having fun splashing with water, while others enjoyed every bit of time they had on a kayak. Overall, the time we spent with each other on the water was not long but the memories will remain forever.” Andy 

“Last week we held our exchange which was very chill and nice. Bartram’s Garden and Urban Promise came to our museum and experienced what we (as river ambassadors) do at Seaport. It was very cool showing them how we go on about our day, with water testing, kayaking/rowing and even fishing!” Aretha 

It was a packed house!

“This picture is a moment captured from the ISM exchange. The sites, Urban Promise and Bartram’s Garden, came to the Independence Museum to join our River Ambassadors in doing activities including kayaking, modified water testing, and fishing!” Bryanna

 That following Saturday, River Ambassadors helped our community and volunteers label storm drains around Queen Village. Ambassadors split off into groups to make sure each storm drain was labeled on our map. All together, we labeled over 60 drains! Each label informs the public about storm drains, and how any illegal dumping leads straight into our river. 

However, we still got to go to Bartram’s Garden! We took a tour around one of Philadelphia’s Water Pollution Treatment Plant. When we arrived back at Bartram’s we were rained out, so everyone enjoyed pizza and water ice! After lunch, we discussed the relation between Bartram’s Garden and the treatment plant. Despite the rain, the River Ambassadors were in great spirits and made the most of the trip!

“Last week was our trip to Bartram’s Garden which was a wet one, literally. To start of our day we took a tour of a water refinery factory thing. The day started off smelling like well not good and at the end the smell got better. Throughout the tour, we were told what the water had to got through to get to clean. After the tour we went back to Bartram’s for lunch where we were hoping to go on the water but the rain was just a lot and it messed up our hopes of getting into the water. But all in all it was an okay fun day.” Romeo

Last week was our trip to Bartram’s Garden which was a wet one literally. To start of our day we took a tour of a water refinery factory thing. The started off smelling like well not good and at the end the smell got better. Throughout the door we were told what the water had to got through to get to clean. After the tour we went back to Bartram’s for lunch where we were hoping to go on the water but the rain was just a lot and it messed up our hopes of getting into the water. But all in all it was an okay fun day. “During our trip to Bartram's Garden, while waiting to board our bus. Jaden and I spotted an unusual thing. At first, we thought we just discovered a new species that can levitate without wings and would become famous for our discovery. But like all wonders it was dropped because it was just a stem of a plant hanging from a spider's web. Later in the day we went to a Water Pollution Treatment Plant, which had an unique sense of smell.” Isaiah

“Last week we went on our very first trip of the summer to John Heinz. Unexpectedly, this trip was very hands on. All of us got chest deep in river water in hopes of surveying mussels that inhabited the river. Although it was disgusting, I had gotten drenched, and we didn’t catch any mussels, overall I would say the experience was very pleasant. It was my first time ever doing something like that, and honestly I could say that I would do it again.” Kadidia

Two days after John Heinz, the River Ambassadors took  to Camden, New Jersey for their field trip to the Aquarium! 

“We got to experience how it feels to be behind the scenes at an Aquarium. My favorite part was getting to see the sharks. I learned that sharks actually don’t think humans taste good because of all the things we put on our body like soap and perfume.” Germilus