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Adele Hawkins Named 2025 Best Friend of Rouge ParkAdele Hawkins has been volunteering with Rouge Park for the past 3 years. Her knowledge, curiosity and enthusiasm has made her a star volunteer. She quickly went beyond just volunteering to become a lead steward and lead youth hikes through the Prairie and work crews at Rouge Park Appreciation Day and other work days. Adele has been the most reliable lead steward on our team.
Growing up, Adele spent countless hours exploring the lower Rouge, from the wooded mountain bike trails in West Dearborn to the concrete channels constructed by Ford Motor Company. While formally trained as an animator, she has always been a nature gal at heart; the Covid-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to shift deeper into her passions for nature stewardship. During the intervening years of making ends meet with various delivery jobs, she grew more passionate about climate change resiliency, insect conservation, and stewarding natural areas. In 2023, she completed the Stormwater Specialist Training program at St. Suzanne’s Cody Rouge Community Center in Detroit, which gave her a way to apply her budding interest in botany and native plants to the growing field of Green Stormwater Infrastructure. Adele joined up with our efforts in Rouge Park in 2023. She loves learning more about the ecology of plants and the wildlife they support. As a Rouge Park Lead Steward, Adele is critical to our program, leading volunteers in tackling invasive species such as honeysuckle and buckthorn, teaching youth on walks and even inspired seniors on our annual bus tour. Adele truly goes above and beyond for Rouge Park. |
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Lisa Perez, USDA Forest Service Named 2025 Best Partner of Rouge ParkLisa Perez has gone above and beyond for Rouge Park for many, many years and is indeed a Best Partner of Rouge Park. For over 15 years, Lisa has worked steadfastly to engage urban youth in Rouge Park through her role with the USDA Forest Service as Detroit’s Urban-Connections Coordinator, helping us to accomplish our mission. She brings us Smokey the Bear and Woodsy the Owl!
In 2012, Lisa partnered with the Greening of Detroit to bring 250 5th and 6th grade students to Rouge Park in all four seasons and expose them to the forests and prairie for a program called Our LAND. She honored the students after they did a tree planting in Rouge Park by swearing them in as Junior Rangers. When Lisa learned that there was a campground in Rouge Park, she got very excited. She investigated with Garrett Dempsey, saw potential and collaborated with partners to reinvigorate the Scout Hollow campground and develop a program for urban youth to camp in our very own Rouge Park. Lisa supported the Friends of Rouge Park in obtaining a Community Forestry Grant in 2016 from the Department of Natural Resources to develop the Stone Bridge Nature Trail, enabling us to train a crew of local high school students to build the trail. When the trail was complete, Lisa got Forest Service naturalists to lead a nature walk for every single class from Dixon School in the park. And in 2023, Lisa partnered with the Friends of Rouge Park on a Cost Share Agreement through the Forest Service's Urban Connections program that funded conservation education and stewardship for youth and young adults for two years for $35,000. This enabled us to hire Antonio Cosme and get our park stewardship program established. Although federal funding for the program has been cut by the current administration, the program continues under several new funding sources that we likely would not have been awarded without the program that Lisa and the Forest Service helped us to get started. Lisa truly makes a lasting difference for Rouge Park and its people and is a true Partner of Rouge Park. |
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Local 4 News: Friends of Rouge Park receives $450K donation from Gilbert Family FoundationRouge Park, the largest urban park in Michigan, is receiving funding that will help provide operational support and enhance community gatherings and events.
A $450,000 donation was made by Gilbert Family Foundation to Friends of Rouge Park, a nonprofit organization committed to maintenance, improvement and protection of the park. The donation is the largest in the organization’s history and will provide support to allow more Detroit residents to enjoy one of the city’s greatest resources. |
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The Metro: Celebrate Buffalo Soldiers history at Rouge Park Blues & Freedom Arts FestivalThe Detroit Parks Coalition’s Freedom Arts Festival is celebrating the Buffalo Soldiers on Saturday at Rouge Park with a family-friendly blues festival.
The Buffalo Soldiers were an all-Black U.S. Army unit that made a name for themselves during the 19th century. The Buffalo Soldiers Heritage Association (BSHA) has kept the history of African Americans in the military alive by introducing youth in the community to horses housed in Rouge Park. In 2007, with support from the Friends of Rouge Park, BSHA worked out an agreement with city officials to operate the Rouge Park barn after the Detroit Police Mounted Division relocated. |
