.jpg "Friends of St. Croix National Parks members, from left, Elizabeth Rezende, Julie San Martin and Susan Wall at the NPS Steeple Building.")
The Friends of St. Croix National Parks are on a mission to increase public awareness and appreciation of the St. Croix National Parks through education, community outreach, and civic engagement.
Julie San Martin, president of the board of directors of the Friends, said the impetus to create the organization began about four years ago, but it didn’t come about until a year ago. The group had its first organizational meeting in May 2014.
San Martin, a volunteer with the Christiansted Community Alliance, an organization that works to revitalize Christiansted, was tasked to speak with park officials to see how the Christiansted National Historic Site could possibly get involved. She worked with David Goldstein, NPS chief of interpretation and education, who actually had the task of getting the community involved with the regional park system.
“David has been very instrumental in knitting the community together with the Parks,” San Martin said. “And he has helped getting grants and funding for programs.”
San Martin said the National Park Service has a very strong, well-identified program for the Friends of the Parks.
The national program provides all the templates, agreements, forms and articles of incorporation. San Martin said they have applied for non-profit status and they should have that by the end of summer.
The Friends are supporting Jazz in the Park, held on the lawn at the Christiansted site the last Friday of the month. And they help sponsor a family movie night in the park. On Transfer Day, in March, the friends helped organize a ceremony at the Christiansted site.
The Friends support Outreach Thursdays with special lectures and programs such as the African Slave Wrecks Project and the Jensen-Richardson Women of Christiansted. The programs are held at the Danish Guinea West India Company Warehouse/ Slave Market Building, also known as the “old post office.”
The Friends meet from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. the second Thursday of the month at the “old post office.”
“We are finished with the meeting by 5:30 and people are encouraged to stay for the lectures and program that start following the meeting,” San Martin said.
San Martin said they have hard working board members leading the organization.
“The board is fantastic,” San Martin said. “They are self-motivated, productive and have good connections with the community and non-profits.”
The board members are: Nina York, Ditty Layton, Susan Wall, Sara Dykstra and Mark Eckard, legal counsel. The group has about 24 active founding members and they are great volunteers, she said. The Friends would like more people to become members and get involved to support and help preserve the Parks’ historic significance and cultural and natural resources.
San Martin said they encourage people to come to a meeting to find out about the organization and to join the Friends.
“People can tell us what their interests are and what they would like to do to help,” San Martin said.
More information about the friends is available by calling San Martin at 340-773-1048 extension 305, or sending her email at julie@teamsanmartin.com.
The NPS on St Croix is comprised of three sites: the Christiansted National Historic Site, Salt River Historical Park and Ecological Preserve, and Buck Island Reef National Monument.
