“Toni, what motivates you and your family, including 5 children/young adults, to trek from Brooklyn to Manhattan, then to Governors Island on any given Friday to catch the 10 am ferry to work with Earth Matter?”
Toni’s response: “Well, my children want to come out. We just love being here on Governors Island, jumping around, being around nature and learning about all different kinds of natural things.”
(left) Rahmanna, Rahima, Toni, Azziz, Azziza and Rahman (front right) harvesting beets planted by the Farm School season extension class in August.
This lovely home-schooled family, shepherded by Mom (Antoinette or Toni) is quite the batch of personalities and Toni describes herself as a “patient person.” Children work together to form a cohesive, yet diverse group. The activities they engage in at Earth Matter range from working as partners to prepare “browns” – Elm hedge branches, for our “Stop, Chop and Drop” bin, to helping us put our Outpost to sleep for the winter by bringing “stuff” into our shed (THANK YOU!!!!), to independent projects such as Rahmanna creating a sign for “Chicken Care Supplies” and Rahman, acting as our “hose man” when we need to moisten a pile while turning it.
Over the past 6 months, the family has volunteered on many Fridays. We discovered that their seemingly random choice to volunteer with Earth Matter is not so random at all. Birds of a feather flock together and this family has a cockatoo bird at home. Caring for chickens, close cousins to the cockatoo, fits in with their interests and capabilities. As time goes on, we look forward to meeting all of the family members, including Abdullah Abjur-Razzaq, Toni’s husband and the children’s dad.
One week when we shared at the end of the day, Angela, one of our apprentices, said that the best thing about her day, was getting to know this family. We all have to agree that when the family comes around, our hearts jump a bit with the joy that they bring.