Feeling Accomplished

Unsure of how our partners at the Pinelands Preservation Alliance would receive our proposals this morning, we made some final touches and prepared our presentations for our 9:30 am meeting at their office. At 8:30, everyone packed up their prototypes and rushed to the bus as rain drizzled down. Once on site, we enjoyed a light breakfast of regular and chocolate croissants, as well as yogurts, orange juice, and Perrier waters.

Our primary “user,” Jason Howell, brought in his colleague to provide a fresh set of eyes. There was even a parent, Mrs. Cherbavaz, in attendance. Our presentations lasted about 3-5 minutes each, after which our audience asked us a few follow-up questions, but were mostly impressed with the quality of our work and the thoughtful solutions that we came up with in response to our driving question: “How might we protect the sensitive wetlands in the Pinelands from destruction by ORVs?”

We knew we had come up with great ideas. Jason even said about one group’s work: “I’m going to go out and try that out tomorrow!” More than anything else, the reaction of the “user,” in this case Jason, was a sign of our success throughout the week. Our projects ranged from a more robust social media campaign targeted at teens, to a new method for blocking certain paths with already fallen trees, and a detailed “Round Robin” outreach program to use in middle and high schools throughout South Jersey.