Environmental Director Thanks Mahwah For Hero Award

By Eric Fuchs-Stengel

I am very proud of MEVO’s partnership with the Ramapough Lunaape Nation, an amazing group of people that have worked with MEVO for the last three years cleaning up Stag Hill, and supplying volunteers, office space, and resources to make it all possible. The Ramapough and MEVO have come together to speak out against illegal dumping and off-roading on Stag Hill. It has got to stop and we have made a massive amount of progress over these past three years, with hopes for many more successes ahead!

The most important part of being declared a New Jersey Hero is being able to thank every volunteer that has spent hours, days, weeks, months, and, in some cases, years working for MEVO strictly as a volunteer to create a better future.

Some really important volunteers and partners I would like to recognize are:

Emma Spett, MEVO’s Volunteer Coordinator who has worked for the organization for four years since her junior year in high school managing volunteers.

Ryan Martens, MEVO’s Earth Crew Leader, and Jessica Aleman, MEVO’s Farm Crew Leader, as well as MEVO’s entire summer Earth Crew and Farm Crew who spent the whole summer interning with MEVO. Everyone helped to carry out a huge amount of environmental projects throughout Northern New Jersey.

Our board member and my mother Rebecca Fuchs, who has spent six years supporting me in every capacity she could since I started MEVO. She is often the most unsung hero in the organization and without her help, MEVO would not be the organization it is.

Some very important partners I need to recognize are:

The Township of Mahwah and the Township of Mahwah Department of Public Works, as well as their leaders, Mayor Bill LaForet and Director of Public Works Ed Sinclair, for years of support providing dumpsters, trucks, staff, tractors, tools, and pizza to the clean-up groups working at Stag Hill.

The Bergen County Parks Department, Bergen Community College, Bergen County Clean Communities Program, SHARP Electronics, Cutting Edge Stencils, Volunteer Center of Bergen County, as well as a massive list of other people, partners, and groups that are not listed here. Thank you all.

To read more about Fuchs-Stengel winning the award for NJ Hero from First Lady Mary Pat Christie, click here.

To read more about MEVO, visit their website at mevoearth.org.