A Riverdale tribute to Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger’s recent passing has inspired myriad homages about his influence as a singer-songwriter, anti-war protester, environmentalist and Hudson River advocate, among other things.

But few people may know that he inspired a significant event in our very own community – Riverdale RiverFest – now in its fifth year.

Here’s the story.

In November 2009, as a newly appointed member of Community Board 8 in the Bronx, I attended a meeting held to educate residents about a design plan for the Bronx Link of Hudson Valley Greenway.

I was delighted to learn that the plan was nearing completion and that one route being studied ran along the banks of the Hudson River and would connect to the Manhattan Greenway. It would enable Bronx and Westchester residents to commute to Manhattan along the River by bicycle, to stroll along the River, to fish in it, and to enjoy unobstructed sunsets over the Palisades.

Then came the wake-up call: someone asked if money had been set aside or identified to construct the Bronx link.

The answer was no.

I left the meeting feeling simultaneously inspired and frustrated.

I wanted to see a Greenway in my community while my kids were still young and living here.

I wanted them to be able to put their feet in the Hudson without having to leave the Bronx.

Right now, the only access to the Hudson in the Bronx is a sliver of parkland on the west side of the Riverdale Metro North Station.

Our community needed to demonstrate that meaningful river access was a pressing issue.

That weekend, by pure coincidence, I saw the documentary, “Pete Seeger: The Power of Song.” Throughout the film, Seeger points out that if you want to effectuate change, you have to begin with small steps in your own community.

In a special feature on the disc, Seeger highlights the Beacon Strawberry Festival as an example of something he and his wife, Toshi, organized to bring their community together at the edge of the Hudson. He also speaks of the power of song to inspire social and political change.

That’s when it hit me — we needed a festival in the Bronx that would bring our own community to the Hudson’s shoreline and provide a taste of river access, with all the possibilities it would afford.

The College of Mount Saint Vincent and the Sisters of Charity NY stepped up to the plate and agreed to host the festival on their scenic riverside campus.

Then after an initial planning meeting, a committee of volunteer organizers was formed. The committee began the ambitious task of organizing the first festival to take place in June 2010, only six months after the meeting.

Pete Seeger’s influence was on display at that festival.

With the assistance of the Hudson River Foundation, festival organizers approached the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc., a nonprofit Seeger founded in 1966 to preserve the Hudson River.

In furtherance of that mission, Seeger and several of his friends built the sloop Clearwater, a replica of the sloops that sailed the Hudson in the 18th and 19th centuries. The idea was to get people – particularly young ones – out on the water aboard the ship so they could experience the River’s majesty and become inspired to preserve it. Throughout the sailing season, the Hudson River Sloop, Clearwater, runs environmental education programs aboard the Clearwater as well as the schooner Mystic Whaler, a privately owned ship also built in the 1960s to replicate coastal trading schooners of the 1800s.

The Hudson River Sloop, Clearwater, agreed to bring the Mystic Whaler to our festival and offer public sails. It did this at cost. In turn, we festival organizers raised enough money that year to be able to offer those sails free of charge.

And thus, Riverdale RiverFest was born. For the first time in memory, Bronx residents were able to board a ship and sail the Hudson River directly from their own shore. Kayakers set out for the festival from Yonkers and docked directly in the Bronx. And for one afternoon, 3000 residents of the Bronx and surrounding areas got to experience the Hudson from their own backyard.

But Pete Seeger’s influence did not end there. Over the three succeeding festival years, Seeger’s organization brought the sloop Clearwater itself to Riverdale RiverFest. And it will do so again at this year’s festival, on Sunday, June 15, from 12:00 to 6:00 p.m.

Each June since 2011, members of the public has had the opportunity to take two-hour educational sails aboard the Clearwater at Riverdale RiverFest, as well as aboard the A.J. Meerwald tall ship and John J. Harvey fireboat. We offer these sails at nominal cost because we, like Seeger, believe that true love for the River can only be inspired by direct connection to it.

If you would like more information about Riverdale RiverFest, please check out our website at www.riverdaleriverfest.org.

Through our website, you can sign up to volunteer for the festival, make financial contributions to help sustain it, and later in the spring, make boat ride reservations — check the website in May for information about when reservations will become available.

If we keep taking, in Seeger’s words, the “millions of small steps” necessary to bring the community to the water’s edge once a year, we may eventually achieve our goal of having Hudson River access 365 days a year.

I cannot think of a more fitting tribute to Pete Seeger.

Yael Levy is the Riverdale RiverFest Coordinator. The annual event is a project of the Friends of the Hudson River Greenway in the Bronx.