Ribbon Cutting Celebrates Opening of New Barnabas Health Outdoor Theatre at City Green Learning Farm
Dozens of Barnabas Health volunteers donate their time to work on the farm planting, mulching, painting and cleaning to get it ready for first visitors
CLIFTON, NJ., September 26, 2013 /3BL Media/ – Executives and staff members from throughout Barnabas Health, New Jersey’s largest hospital and health care system, dug in and got their hands dirty planting, mulching, weeding, hauling, cleaning and painting in an energetic employee volunteer day Tuesday at City Green Schultheis Learning Farm. The volunteer work was in advance of Wednesday’s ribbon cutting for the Learning Farm’s new state-of-the-art Barnabas Health Outdoor Theatre. The outdoor theatre was funded through Barnabas Health’s WellnessAd advertising with CBS EcoMedia.
The ribbon cutting and dedication ceremony held at the new theatre was hosted by Barry H. Ostrowsky, President and Chief Executive Officer of Barnabas Health; Jennifer Papa, Executive Director of City Green; and Dan Rodrigues, Senior Vice President of Sales for CBS EcoMedia Inc. Also attending the program was Clifton Mayor James Anzaldi, senior executives from throughout Barnabas Health and City Green Inc. staff and volunteers.
Barnabas Health’s support also included the purchase of new native plants for the City Green Learning Farm, a new eco-center supporting education focusing on environmental awareness, sustainable agriculture, and healthy food. The newly dedicated outdoor theatre will become home to Theatre in the Garden productions, concerts, educational programming for students, workshops and seminars. The Barnabas Health Outdoor Theatre was constructed with a striking combination of natural and man-made materials, flexible seating to allow for a variety of audience configurations, paver stage area, prominent sailcloth shade structure and energy-saving solar lighting.
“We're proud and honored to support the new City Green Learning Farm and share our expertise to promote health, wellness and proper nutrition in its school curriculum and after-school programs,” said Mr. Ostrowsky. “Through our partnership with City Green, we have an extraordinary opportunity to give back to New Jersey residents in a unique way and further one of our most essential missions - keeping people healthy.”
“Barnabas Health has a wealth of educational material regarding health and wellness that will marry perfectly with our school, after school and summer garden programming,” said Ms. Papa. “We intend to leverage their expertise to improve our educational programs and integrate more nutrition and healthy eating activities than ever. This is a wonderful partnership that fulfills our mutual goals of promoting healthy eating, sustainable agriculture and outdoor activity.”
In addition to the new Barnabas Health Outdoor Theatre, the City Green Learning Farm features a multi-use natural area including: the Barnyard, the Farm, the Sustainability Center, the Native American Prairie, and a Learning Pavilion for activities and gathering.
“This magnificent new facility will offer the community a myriad of wellness, educational and environmental benefits and Barnabas Health is engaged in every aspect of those,” said Paul Polizzotto, President and Founder of CBS EcoMedia. “The powerful public-private partnership established with this project through Barnabas Health’s WellnessAd advertising began yesterday with Barnabas volunteers digging in to work on the farm. It will continue with every educational and cultural program presented at the new Barnabas Health Outdoor Theatre. And it will go above and beyond those with the health, wellness and nutrition programming Barnabas Health is now collaborating with City Green on. That’s precisely the kind of impact our EcoMedia programs were created to achieve.”
The City Green Learning Farm has received broad and significant community support for the only Farm Eco-Center in Northern New Jersey. Other generous contributors include The Passaic County Open Space Fund, Jacobsen Landscape Design and Construction, Belgard, as well as donations from the students of St. Philips Academy in Newark and of the Paterson Public School #10 who held fundraisers selling flower bulbs.
About Barnabas Health
Barnabas Health is the largest not-for-profit integrated health care delivery system in New Jersey and one of the largest in the nation, with more than two million patient visits and delivery of more than 17,600 babies annually. The system includes six acute care hospitals, two children’s hospitals, a freestanding behavioral health center, ambulatory care centers, geriatric centers, the state’s largest behavioral health network, comprehensive home care and hospice programs, pharmacy services, a medical group and two accountable care organizations. As the second-largest private employer in New Jersey, Barnabas Health includes 18,200 employees and 4,600 physicians – or one-fifth of the actively practicing physicians in New Jersey. For more information, visit www.barnabashealth.org.
About City Green
The five acre-multi-use natural area has been preserved as open space by the city of Clifton with the support of NJ Green Acres and Passaic County Open Space. City Green is dedicated to facilitating the establishment of urban farms and gardens in northern New Jersey’s cities to increase food security by providing access to healthy, affordable, culturally appropriate food while cultivating education in public health, nutrition and the environment.
City Green is a Clifton based 501c3 non-profit urban farming and gardening organization dedicated to cultivating education in public health, nutrition and the environment." Visit www.citygreenonline.org or call 973-869-4086.
About CBS EcoMedia Inc.
At EcoMedia, we're propelled by the desire to create positive social change; that's been our mission since we founded the company in 2002. In 2010, after successfully partnering with CBS on a wide range of environmental projects, EcoMedia became the newest addition to the CBS Corporation portfolio, exponentially scaling our reach across television, radio, interactive,publishing and outdoor media.
Through our patent-pending EcoAd, WellnessAd and EducationAd programs, an innovative twist on traditional advertising, advertisers are able to support much-needed local projects which in turn creates jobs, saves taxpayer money and improves the quality of life in communities nationwide. In the process, we’re fundamentally altering the advertising landscape, elevating the ordinary, traditional commercial – and media, in general – into a catalyst for tangible, quantifiable social change. Please visit ecomedia.cbs.com to learn more.
By participating in EcoMedia’s EcoAd, WellnessAd and EducationAd advertising programs, EcoMedia’s advertisers agree to provide funding for projects we believe will have a beneficial effect upon the environment, health and/or education within local communities. EcoMedia’s advertising programs are not certification programs nor are the EcoAd, WellnessAd or EducationAd logos seals of approval. EcoMedia does not in any way certify, endorse or make any representations about EcoMedia program advertisers, their products or services.
