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Ecoart Restoration Project in Dreher Park

Receives $10,000 Grant Award
as part of Nationwide Competition to “Think Green”

Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful, Inc. has received a $10,000 "THINK GREEN" cash award to support the work of the newly-formed “Friends of Elders’ Cove”, a community action group organized to restore a damaged ecoart project in West Palm Beach’s largest public green space, the 103-acre Dreher Park. The Friends of Elders’ Cove has been designated the first in a new program, Parks Ambassadors, established by West Palm Beach Parks and Recreation Director, Christine Thrower.

The Friends of Elders’ Cove project proposed by Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful is one of 18 winners nationwide, chosen from a field of 85 entries. The grant was awarded from the Waste Management Charitable Foundation through national nonprofit Keep America Beautiful, Inc. THINK GREEN is a nationwide effort that encourages local solutions to improving community environments.

The Friends of Elders’ Cove will use the grant funds to begin an ambitious plan to restore the multi-faceted ecoart work, called “Elders’ Cove” in honor of the Seminole history of the site. This project is the first and still the only, permanent ecoart work in South Florida. The work was badly damaged during the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes Frances, Jeanne and Wilma. The ecoart work, completed in the summer of 2004, includes a unique water cleansing sculptural fountain, extensive littoral plantings of native wetland flora that clean and filter stormwater, and construction of sculptural mounds reminiscent of Native American burial mounds prevalent in South Florida. The mammoth mounds were built from tons of dirt reclaimed during the digging of a new storm water retention lake in Dreher Park. The ecoart work also has other specific references in landscape design to the early history of the area as a Seminole trading post.

Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful is part of a diverse group of community organizations who have joined together as Friends of Elders’ Cove to raise funds and mobilize volunteers to clean up the site, repair the fountain mechanism, re-plant and restore the littoral areas and improve other aspects of the ecoart project that require restoration. Member organizations of the Friends of Elders’ Cove include (in addition to Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful): The South Florida Environmental Art Project, Audubon Society of the Everglades, Florida Native Plants Society, West Palm Beach 100, Palm Beach Zoo, Science Museum of South Florida, West Palm Beach Garden Club, West Palm Beach Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, Parker Ridge Neighborhood Association and Vedado Park-Hillcrest Neighborhood Association. Co-Chairs of the Friends of Elders’ Cove are Mary Jo Aagerstoun, Founder and Director of the South Florida Environmental Art Project; and Lucy Keshavarz of Art and Culture Group, Inc. and a board member of Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful.

"Ecoart like Elders’ Cove, provides the public with a uniquely functional visual perspective on addressing an environmental issue,” said Lourdes Ferris, Executive Director of Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful. “We did not hesitate a second to apply for this grant to repair the damage.” 

Keshavarz, a public art consultant and Board member of Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful, represented West Palm Beach’s Art in Public Places Committee on the design/build team for the renovation of Dreher Park, and was intimately involved along with artists Jackie Brookner and Angelo Ciotti, in all aspects of the development and installation of the ecoart in 2003 and 2004. “Elders’ Cove has tremendous educational potential. We are gratified that the community has stepped up so enthusiastically to bring it back," Keshavarz said.

Aagerstoun, an art historian who moved to the area in 2004, soon discovered that Elders’ Cove was the only ecoart project in South Florida. She launched the South Florida Environmental Art Project in early 2007 to encourage more such projects. She noted that “Elders’ Cove is still, unfortunately, unique in South Florida, so getting the work back up and running had to be a first priority of the South Florida Environmental Art Project. Thanks to Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful and the THINK GREEN grant, our new community action group, and cooperation from the Parks and Recreation Department, Elders’ Cove will once again be the innovative, beautiful and functional ecoart work that demonstrates to the public how to clean stormwater in urban spaces through artistic, natural and non-polluting methods.”

“Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful and the Friends of Elders’ Cove should be proud, as our national organization is proud, for their initiative in developing this winning proposal,” said Keep America Beautiful President G. Raymond Empson. “The work at the local level exemplifies the mission of our national organization by engaging individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community environments. We look forward to seeing this project come to fruition through the generosity of Waste Management’s grant.”

“Helping America think green and clean is our business.  Every year, Waste Management recycles enough paper to save 41 million trees, and our landfills provide tens of thousands of acres for community parks, recreation centers and protected wildlife habitats,” said Everett Bass, vice president of community relations and public sector services.  “Our company and our employees want to ensure that we pass the planet to the next generation in better shape than we inherited it. It’s a lofty goal, but our generation can be the first generation to accomplish it.  These grants will help pay for wonderful, green projects across our country.”

The wide range of winning programs reflect the diverse interests and needs of the communities involved, and include programs to tackle illegal dumping, hands-on environmental education, media that convey the importance of stewardship to the public including videos and booklets, tree re-planting and recycling events.   Support of these initiatives marks Waste Management’s continuing commitment to local community quality of life and to also building awareness about sustainable resources for effective management of waste.

Waste Management, combined with its wholly-owned subsidiary WM Recycle America, is North America's largest recycler, handling 5.5 million tons of commodities each year.  Its recycling efforts save enough energy to power 833,000 households.   By recycling more than 4.1 million tons of paper, Waste Management saves more than 41 million trees.

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