Princeton University Athletics
Princeton Varsity Club Partners With Isles Inc. On "Weapons Of Mass Construction" Project In Trenton
April 07, 2009 | General
A group of more than 120 Princeton student-athletes spent Sunday, April 5, working in conjunction with the Princeton Varsity Club and Isles, Inc., on a rebuilding and beautification project entitled "Weapons of Mass Construction."
Athletes from nine different Princeton teams participated in the project in Trenton. The goal was the renovation of a 19th century textile mill on a 6.5 acre site near the Northeast Corridor rail line.
The finished project will eventually see the area converted into a "green" village that will include offices for public interest and environmental organizations, a training facility for local youth, home, artists' studios and many other uses. The environmental challenges and other unique aspects of the mill were addressed in a fall course in Princeton's department of civil and environmental engineering (CEE 477).
The athletes helped in the demolition of interior walls, bathrooms and ceilings; the demolition of outdoor structures; scraping of old paint and priming and painting of walls; and outside beautification and gardening, including the planting of flowers and bulbs.
The teams that participated included football, men's and women's swimming and diving, women's basketball, women's hockey, women's squash, women's cross country and track and field, women's tennis and field hockey. Princeton head coaches Roger Hughes (football), Kathy Sell (tennis) and Peter Farrell (women's cross country and track field) also worked on the site, along with swimming assistant coaches Phil Spaniello and Jamie Holder and women's tennis assistant coach Courtney Nagle.
Evan O'Reilly, a football player and member of the Class of 2008, was another volunteer. O'Reilly wrote his senior thesis on the history and development of Isles, Inc., as a non-profit community and environmental organization.
Marty Johnson '81, a football and baseball alum, started Isles right after graduation as an extension of an undergraduate community-service project. Now, 30 years later, Isles remains committed to its mission statement of "fostering more self-reliant families in healthy, sustainable communities."
Among its areas of focus are community planning and research, housing and real estate, youth education and training, financial self-reliance, environmental and community health and energy and "green" job training.