Giving Rye: Meet The Bird Homestead & Meeting House Conservancy
Giving Rye is a feature series highlighting non-profits and community groups in and around the City of Rye. Today meet Doug Carey of the Bird Homestead and Meeting House Conservancy.
Your Name: Douglas Carey
Organization: Bird Homestead and Meeting House Conservancy (Committee to Save the Bird Homestead, Inc.)
Your role: Vice-President of the Board of Directors
MyRye.com: Tell us your organization’s mission.
Carey: To promote an appreciation of historic preservation, art, science, and literature, inspired by the legacies of The Bird Family, William Voris, and the Rye Meeting House. Legacies of men and women who explored millions of years of history and circumnavigated the globe, through careers in archaeology, paleontology and earth sciences to art and children’s literature, homesteading to hands-on learning, and entrepreneurship to environmentalism. Our goal is to provide visitors with endless opportunities to learn, engage, and ground themselves in an era when in-person human contact was not only how we connected, but what gave us purpose.
How long have you operated in Rye?
Carey: Since 2008.
What programming or work in Rye is the organization best known for?
Carey:
- Our Lecture Series throughout the years has brought attention to coastal resilience, historic preservation, archaeology, paleontology, environmental stewardship and the health and preservation of coastal estuaries, the pioneering persons of color and women who have led the suffrage movements in this area of the USA and the history of the Milton hamlet of what is now the City of Rye.
- Our Educational programming including the Spring and Fall Ford Winter Coastal Estuary Program for Middle School and High School students, Fossils 101 classes led by paleontologist Dr. Carl Mehling of the American Museum of Natural History, Miss Doris Bird’s Children’s Literature Series in conjunction with the Rye Free Reading Room, and the William Voris Archaeological Digs.
- Our key role in protecting the salt marsh, our Blind Brook Estuary as we continue to serve as a beacon of light and hope for responsible and sustainable living and caretaking of the land, sea and sky within our Milton neighborhood. This includes understanding all of the creatures of the estuary, human and other, through guided bird walks, flora and fauna identification workshops and weekly Earth Care Team activities.
Looking forward to 2025, what will be your top initiatives?
Carey:
- Rolling out our updated 50 year plan for the three properties that we manage, the Bird Homestead, the Voris Property and the Meeting House/Historic Milton Chapel property. In 2025, we will continue to restore aspects of the Woodworkers Shop, the Barn and the Main house, as well as installing interpretative signs on the Voris property.
- Building on our educational programming. We currently are offering the Doris Bird Children’s Literature Saturday program at the Rye Library and it will resume in January and February of 2025. We will begin our second year of the Ford Winter Coastal Estuary Program with our partners, Save the Sound, the Marshlands Conservancy, the Carver Center and the Blue Hearts Forever Project as well as our lecture series and Fossils 101 classes.
- We will be expanding our gardening and restoration and preservation of our native plants and trees on our properties as we protect the bluebells, snowdrops, tradescantia, asparagus, American barberry, sunchokes, ferns, mock orange, trillion, lily of the valley, milkweed, goldenrod, beard tongue, junipers, cedars, oaks, maples, American crabapple as well as our raised bed-planted yarrow, strawberry, mint, cempasuchil, oregano, thyme, concord grape vines, lilac, roses, and others.
Tell us about the population you serve and how they can get involved with your programming and services.
Carey: We serve all ages from toddlers to centenarians. Visit our website and check out our programs, events and internship and volunteer opportunities. The Doris Bird Children’s Lit Series continues in January, in the spring we will offer our Ford Winter Coastal Estuary Spring Program on Thursdays, the Fossils 101 classes, gardening in the estuary workshops, as well as many other programs throughout the summer and fall including our weekly Earth Care Team Tuesday Activities.
Are you a 501(c)(3) non-profit with tax exempt status?
Carey: Yes
Looking back across 2024, what were your organization’s top achievements?
Carey: We dedicated this year back in January as the “Year of the Bird” and it has been a successful and enriching year indeed. We rolled out our new programs, events and initiatives for 2024. We also added incredibly talented and dedicated new members to our Board of Directors.
This year we launched our Ford Winter Coastal Estuary Program in both the spring and fall. This program was inspired by Ford Winter, the incredible renaissance man, who was a master educator, coach, engineer, actor, singer, sailor, family man and husband to Neva Winter and a trustworthy and loyal friend to so many people. We sponsored the Fossils 101 class by Carl Mehling who is in process of writing a book on the incredible accomplishments of Roland Thaxter (RT) Bird, we hosted a prescient Art Exhibit, HORTUS REMEDIUM, by local artist Kari Englehardt, highlighting the amazing benefits of phytoremediation for our soil and the Earth, we hosted a third William Voris Archeological Dig partnering with the all female Historic Perspectives Inc. (HPI) and their VP and lead Archaeologist Sara Mascia, and with the support of the Rye Sustainability Committee we were privileged to be the recipient of two Community Clean Up Days, all the while, establishing protocols to become a plastic-free, pesticide-free grounds. We hosted our first Annual Bird Family Birthday Celebration (Happy Bird Day) on October 12, which was Henry Bird’s 155th Birthday. Fourteen Bird and Erickson family members were able to attend, driving and flying from California, Guatemala, Washington DC, Virginia, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
This year, we welcomed Michelle New, Dr. Ben Rosenstadt, Christopher Mignone and Peter Romano to our Board of Directors of the Bird Homestead and Meeting House Conservancy. Michelle is an experienced and talented archivist who has done extensive cataloging with AMNH, Ben is a surgeon and life-long Rye Resident whose nautical, analytical and organizational skills has and will continue to help guide us forward, Chris is an expert birder and longtime volunteer who also has a unique set of skills including problem solving, archiving and environmental conservation, and Peter is a Rye resident with a strong background in restoration and project management.
How can local residents support your organization?
Carey: We have several opportunities to volunteer both inside and outdoors. The Bird Homestead & Meeting House Conservancy is a 100% volunteer organization, which means every penny we raise goes directly to the restoration of the properties and daily pursuit of achieving our vision. It also means we need your help! Please feel free to reach out to any of our Trustees or through our contact us form.
What local Rye residents and area businesses have been the longest, steadiest supporters of your organization?
Carey: Christopher Mignone has been one of our longest serving volunteers as a representative of Central Westchester Audubon and an active outdoor maintenance expert, Lawrence Erikson, whose father John, was a pioneering meteorologist and was born and raised in the Bird home, has been preserving and maintaining portions of the property his entire life, the entire Frank and Mary Goldzer Family, Gary and Maureen Adamson, the Rye and Little Garden Clubs, the City of Rye, Save the Sound, LI Sound Study, the Rye Historical Society, the Marshlands Conservancy, the Leaders of Tomorrow Educational Enrichment Organization, the Poningo Earth Care Team Volunteers, Dan Greto and the Central Tree Service, Walter Segovic, Chris Shoemaker and the Rye Free Reading Room, Neva Winter and many others.
Tell us about you:
How long have you been in your current role?
Carey: I am one of the original founders of the organization and have served for 15 years.
Is the role full time or part time? Paid or volunteer?
Carey: Full time volunteer. I also work as a Bilingual Educator in Rockland County.
How would your friends and family describe you in one word?
Carey: Passionate.
Where did you grow up?
Carey: I was born at United Hospital and grew up in the Milton area of Rye, near the Bird Homestead and Clamtown. I first came to the Bird Home when I was about 6 years old and my father thought I needed to work all day on a Saturday to teach me a lesson. He walked with me to 600 Milton where Doris and Alice were waiting for me and handed me a sickle and later a scythe. Eight hours later, after working hard all day, feeding the chickens and having lunch under the grape arbor, my father came back and asked if I had learned my lesson and I replied, “when can I come back?”
What is your favorite unimportant thing about you?
Carey: I collect wreaths after the holidays. Each year we offer wreath-making workshops and we try to reuse or repurpose the metal rings that do not get recycled after they are picked up on green waste days. Please consider “donating” your wreath in January or February so we can help to brighten the holidays for a family that otherwise would not have a wreath next December.
If the next five years is a chapter in your life, what is this chapter about?
Carey: Hoping to continue to serve others through creative, experiential activities as we learn, practice and dedicate ourselves to taking better care of our earth and sky as well as each other.
What would you do if you were not afraid?
Carey: Sail and row across the Atlantic Ocean in an Old Town White Cap, a 13 ½ wooden lapstrake boat, just as Robert Manry did in 1965. My father brought home a paperback book one day called “Tinkerbelle” about his voyage and I read it from cover to cover many times (and still have the book).
Where do you live in Rye and how many years have you lived in the City?
Carey: I currently live in Poningo, now known as Milton or Rye, and enjoy watching the eastern sky at dawn by Oakland Beach to begin the day.
Thanks Doug!
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