Tag Archives: VisitingaMuseum.com

Day Three Hundred and Twenty-Eight Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents “The Bergen 250: Visiting Bergen County, NJ Museums: Promotional Plan for Visiting the Behnke Museum, Bergenfield Museum, Walking Tour of Coopers Pond Park and a Graveyard Walk of the South Presbyterian Church” December 11th, 2024

In my live classes, I open my consulting company, “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.”, for business and the whole class bands together and we have one big project. In the era of post-COVID and online learning, I was lucky that I was able to teach one of the live classes on the Bergen Community College, Paramus Campus. It was such a pleasure welcoming students back to campus with live lectures and conversing with them.

The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. corporate logo of the six trees

Contact Us

In the past, I have created these projects under the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. banner, the main consulting company, the Orion Malls banner, a Mall design company and the Buscomonzefi.com banner, my Tech Division. Each business does its best to be creative, forward thinking and have a thought producing presentations. I also challenge the students to top on another in their presentations and build on what they have seen others do in the past.

Professor Justin Watrel, CEO & Co-Founder of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.

The Behnke Museum Project:

I created the Behnke Museum promotion as a way to promote this wonderful museum located right next to the Bergen Community College campus for tourism. It is such a terrific museum but it never seemed to have any visitors. Not only that, it seemed that no one at the college including the Professors had been there or even knew what it was as they passed it everyday on their way to work. This project, which was the first project in the class, was going to change all of that.

With the help of Fred Behnke and the Board of Volunteers, we partnered together to help the museum promote itself for tourism and put the museum on the map. I created with the help of the Executive Team and the Student Consultants, a series of promotions, commercials and ideas to bring traffic into the museum. The Student Consultants also created an Instagram site for the museum, helped create a website and translated pamphlets into Spanish, Korean and Pilipino to help promote the museum to an outside audience where English may not be the first language. We started the project out with a tour of the museum.

The Fred Behnke Museum at 330 Paramus Road

https://www.facebook.com/FritzBehnkeMuseum/

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g46712-d4973052-Reviews-Fritz_Behnke_Historical_Museum-Paramus_New_Jersey.html

My review on VisitingaMuseum.com:

The Sunday Extra Credit tour that my class at the museum

On the Sunday before the formal Class tour of the museum, I gave the students extra credit towards their project to come in on a Sunday and tour the museum at their leisure. About a third of the class took advantage of it.

The next class, I picked my Teams, set up the Executive Team and then it was ‘full steam ahead’ with the project.

The Team:

The Project:

We arrived at the museum later that week for our formal walking tour of the museum and the class was broken up into two teams one upstairs and one downstairs.

The Class Field Trip to the Behnke Museum as part of the project

The Team Field Trip to the Behnke Museum

Touring the first floor of the museum

After the tour was over, we took our official Team Corporate picture for the project. Even though it was a gloomy day, it was all energy and smiles and a lot of promise to help the museum gain more visitors.

The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Behnke Museum Team picture with the Museum Volunteer Staff

The Student Consultants had a week to put the Presentation together and create a commercial to promote the museum and their PowerPoint on their ideas to create excitement at the museum. Here is their project Presentation and PowerPoint on the project. Please remember that they had seven days to do this.

The PowerPoint:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1atn7BlTHfG88tND0P8fU1yNzmEpFrEG4/view?usp=gmail

The Video of the Presentation:

https://www.youtubeeducation.com/watch?v=krZNmHevETA

The Team Picture after the Behnke Museum Presentation to the Museum Volunteer Staff:

The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Paramus Team for the Behnke Museum

The Behnke Museum Volunteer Staff was impressed with the students ideas and thought there was a lot good ideas that they can use.

Commercial Group One:

Commercial Group Two:

Marketing Commercial Team Two:

Commercial Group Three:

Marketing Commercial Team Three:

Commercial Group Four:

The Bergenfield Tourism Project: The Bergenfield Museum, Coopers Pond Park and South Church Graveyard Tour Project:

This is when I got the idea of doing the same project in a larger form. I saw the Bergenfield Museum, a small gem on the other side of Coopers Pond Park, that did not much traffic considering the museum is open both during the week and the weekend. The building was an original Demarest homestead and the family had their family plot in the South Church which is located right next to the park. So I approached both the museum and the church to partner with me in creating a project to promote this corner of Bergenfield, NJ for tourism.

Cooper’s Pond Park during the Summer months

So I set up the next series of tours for my students that encompassed the Bergenfield Museum, Coopers Pond Park and the historical South Church graveyard where the Demarest family plot was located. The Bergenfield Museum building is the original Demarest family homestead so it tied in nicely to the project.

Walking through Coopers Pond Park inspired this fascinating project

https://bergenfield.com/notices-announcements/oem-notices/cooper-s-pond-update

Two weeks after the Behnke Museum project, I introduced this project and the next week we took a walking tour of all three sites starting with walking through Cooper Pond Park, a WPA project and one of the most beautiful and underrated parks in Bergen County.

We met with the Bergenfield Volunteer Board at the museum to start the tour

The Bergenfield Museum at 100 Cooper Street in Bergenfield, NJ

https://bergenfield.com/museum-society

https://www.facebook.com/bergenfieldmuseum/

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Profile/R4960NKjustinw/photo/776032151?m=19905

My review on VisitingaMuseum.com:

The President of the Bergenfield Museum Board, Joanne, helped me organize the Team Field Trip of the museum. She had four other docents from the Board helping in four different rooms so each Team would follow each other through the rooms. Each Team had about ten minutes in each room for the docent to explain the collection to them. The Student Consultants got to visit the museum on their own time as well.

Our class being greeted by the President of the Bergenfield Museum, Joanne

Touring the Living Room of the old Demarest Homestead

Touring the old Dining Room and the Chair Factory display in the museum

Touring the Kitchen area of the old homestead

Touring the Military Room of the museum

Discussions of the function of the kitchen on the farm

Discussing the Chair manufacturing in Bergenfield, NJ

The Student Consultants touring the Living Room

The Teams taking notes during the tour

After our tour of the museum was over, we took a group picture outside of the museum with the Board of the museum.

The Student Consultants from Bergecco-Parc Consultants Inc. visiting the Bergenfield museum

After we took the group shot, we walked through the park again to my take note of its Depression era past and beautiful views and colors and made our way to the historic South Presbyterian Church and its historic graveyard where the second half of the project would take place.

South Presbyterian Church at 150 West Church Avenue

https://www.southpresbyterian.net/

https://www.facebook.com/southpres/

The historic marker for the church

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g46301-d32842329-r988828266-South_Presbyterian_Church-Bergenfield_New_Jersey.html?m=19905

My review on VisitingaMuseum.com:

https://visitingamuseum.com/author/jwatrel/page/2/

The Demarest Family plot in the church graveyard

Touring the South Church graveyard for the historical walking tour with members of the Church volunteer staff

The tour was lead by Bob Carpenter, a historian who is helping renovate this historical graveyard

The tour of the historical Demarest family plot, which ties into the museum building’s historical past, was lead by historian Bob Carpenter, who is helping the church renovate and restore the graveyard. Mr. Carpenter explained to us how he was fixing all the plots and historic tombstones and how the maintenance of the stones needs to be carefully done.

Mr. Carpenter explains how to maintain the tombstones in these historic graveyards

Video of the walking tour of the historic graveyard:

Both the church volunteers and Mr. Carpenter explaining to the students how families were buried in the 1700and 1800’s

We finished the tour that afternoon inside the South Church to learn its history in the community. Though it will not be part of the project, the church offered the students a glimpse into Bergen County’s past as the original church was built before the Revolutionary War.

The Student Consultants touring the pews of the South Church

Once the tour was complete, the Student Consultants had a better understanding of the locations where the project will take place.

The new project will include walking tours, historical aspects of all three locations, and ways of creating a Destination Marketing Plan for domestic and foreign tourism. This will take place when the Student Consultants present their ideas to myself and the museum and church staffs.

The student consultants had four weeks to this project and put together their game plans. The had to put together commercials to promote the Bergenfield Museum, Coopers Pond Park and the historical cemetery of the South Church. As an extra credit assignment, I had the students develop a Halloween walking tour with food and create a separate commercial for this of which three of the for groups completed.

Quiz Four-The Holiday Project

Before the Team made their final presentation, they created Quiz Four-The Corporate Holiday Party

The Proposal for the Holiday Party Project:

Video of the Team’s Holiday Party Project:

They did a great job on the ideas for the Corporate Holiday Party and came up with some clever menus and logos.

The Holiday Project PowerPoint:

The Christmas Greeting from the Executive Team:

Executive Greeting:

Team One Greeting:

Team Two Greeting:

Team Three Greeting:

Team Four Greeting:

Then came the big Presentation on December 11th, 2024 and this group did an amazing job with ideas for the Town of Bergenfield promoting the Bergenfield Museum, Coopers Pond Park and the South Church’s Historic Cemetery. Each Team tried to top one another.

The whole idea of the Bergenfield Project was not just to promote the museums, parks and historic churches but to create Destination Marketing Project to promote the Town of Bergenfield as a place to visit for both domestic and foreign tourism. This is the project that promotes that vision:

The Bergenfield Team website for Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc:

https://bergeccoparcconsultinginc4.wordpress.com/

The presentation on the Bergenfield Museum

The day of the presentation the students had to be in professional dress with men expected to be in Jacket and tie or a suit and the ladies in blouses, slacks, suits and dresses. We presented this project to the Board and members of the Bergenfield Museum and to the Communications director of Bergenfield, NJ, which really gave the students a stamp of approval.

Video of the Presentation:

Part One:

Part Two:

PowerPoint of the Presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1VUbI7TwxcOVTjXf-Ra-7GbC7fErs0-VU2JSHVMDX9rc/edit?usp=sharing

I thought the commercials the students came up with were very clever.

The Commercials of the Bergenfield Museum:

Team One:

Team Two:

Team Three:

Team Four:

The Children’s Walking Tour of the Bergenfield Museum:

Team One:

Team Two:

Team Three:

Team Four:

The Coopers Pond Walking Tour:

Coopers Pond Park sits between the Bergenfield Museum and the South Church and is one of the most beautiful parks and underrated parks in Bergen County. The students were tasked with creating a Walking Tour of the park.

The beauty of Coopers Pond Park in Bergenfield, NJ during the Christmas Holiday season.

Team One:

Commercial One:

Commercial Two:

Team Two:

Team Three:

Team Four:

The Historic Graveyard Tour of the South Church:

The South Church Cemetery is one of the oldest and historic cemeteries in Bergen County and home to the Demarest family plot, one of the most prominent families in Bergen County. The students were tasked with creating a short Walking Tour video promotion for the project to promote the South Church for tourism.

Team One:

Commercial Two:

Team Two:

Team Three:

Team Four:

Some of the Student Consultants also for extra credit created a Halloween Walk for the Church.

The Corporate Picture at the end of the Presentation:

The Executive Team of the Bergenfield Museum project

Another excellent Project from the Student Consultants of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.-Paramus Benhke/Bergenfield Team

I couldn’t have been more proud of a group of students who created an excellent project!

Day Three Hundred Twenty-Nine: Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents “Promoting Bergen County Farms: Visiting Old Schraalenburgh Farm and Farm Stand in Closter, NJ” December 12th, 2024

In my live classes, I open my consulting company, “Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.”, for business and the whole class bands together and we have one big project. In the era of post-COVID and online learning, I was lucky that I was able to teach one of the live classes on the Bergen Community College, Paramus Campus. It was such a pleasure welcoming students back to campus with live lectures and conversing with them.

The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. corporate logo of the six trees

Contact Us

In the past, I have created these projects under the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. banner, the main consulting company, the Orion Malls banner, a Mall design company and the Buscomonzefi.com banner, my Tech Division. Each business does its best to be creative, forward thinking and have a thought producing presentations. I also challenge the students to top on another in their presentations and build on what they have seen others do in the past.

Professor Justin Watrel, CEO & Co-Founder of Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.

I had done a blog promoting the farms (what is left of them) in Bergen County and thought this might be an interesting subject to research further. Farms are destination not just for walking around but for shopping, dining and for entertaining.

I chose Old Schraalenburgh Farm because of the beauty of the farm during the various seasons, the quality of the food and dining options and the location of the farm in comparison from the other larger farms like Alba and Demarest, who have bigger options such as apple picking and hayrides.

Old Schraalenburgh and Farm Stand at 110 Schraalenburgh Road in Closter, NJ:

https://www.abramdemareehomestead.org/the-farm

https://www.facebook.com/abramdemareehome/

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g46367-d5269898-Reviews-The_Farm_Stand-Closter_New_Jersey.html?m=69573

My review on LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com:

I talked with their manager one day after class and he seemed intrigued by the idea of new promotions for the farm stand and restaurant. So I put the proposal together, presented the project to the students and then I arranged the Team Field Trip and then we visited as a class.

The Proposal for the project “The Farms of Bergen County, NJ: Visiting Old Schraalenburgh Farm and Farm Stand”:

On a sunny October afternoon, we spent class time touring the farm with the manager of the farm. It was the first time some of the students had had a field trip like this before for a business project.

Our Team visit to the farm in early October

Our host and partner in the project, Manager of the farm Nick Griepenburg, explaining the workings of the farm

Explaining the growing season at the farm and the honeybee business

Visiting the honeybee hives and the honey business on the farm that supplies fresh honey to baked items and for sale in jars on the farm

Visiting the chicken coops which supply eggs for baked goods and fresh eggs sold in the farm store

The Teams feeding the chickens on the farm and hearing about how they supply items sold on the farm

The Team on the Farm

The Team at the end of the tour

After the tour, we went took our Team picture for the Paramus Team working with the farm. This helps the Student Consultants create their own memories of the project and is part of their resume building.

Our group shot at the farm

After the tour, I took the Student Consultants to lunch at Pompilio’s Pizzeria at 223 Westwood Avenue in Downtown Westwood, NJ for a pizza lunch and time for them to get to know each other. These are always successful meals and gives everyone a chance to talk.

Pompilio’s Pizzeria & Restaurant at 223 Westwood Avenue in Westwood, NJ

https://www.pompiliospizzeria.com/

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g46923-d4643410-Reviews-Pompilio_s_Pizzeria_Restaurant-Westwood_New_Jersey.html?m=69573

Team Two having lunch together and creating their game plan for the project

Team Three enjoying a pizza lunch together

This is how we create Team Building and getting the Student Consultants to get to know one another. It is an important part of the project. We break bread with one another and it is how we start the Team project. It was a nice afternoon over good food and conversation and how we are going to market this wonderful farm to foreign and domestic visitors.

Now four Teams will compete with one another to create a Digital Marketing Campaign, Special Events and promoting their wonderful bakery, restaurant, ice cream and flower businesses. Each Team will create a new logo, a commercial for the farm and develop three holiday events to bring families to the farm.

What was good about the project is that is that I hope it helps build their bakery, jelly and ice cream businesses as well.

Their ‘cottage’ businesses during Valentine’s Day

The homemade ice cream business

The homemade jelly business

One event is “Spring in the Air”, will promote the flower gardens and the floral business. They will create an event entitled “The Bunny Visits” with an Easter Egg Hunt on the farm with candy souvenirs. Another event is “The Spirits of Halloween”, for families looking for Fall events like Hay Rides, Corn Mazes and a Haunted Barn event. They will create a special Halloween menu from the Farm’s restaurant list for visitors. It will also promote the pumpkin and apple business.

The last event in development for the Teams is a winter event entitled “Mr. and Mrs. Snowball Arrive”, a secular event enjoyed by all families. This event will open the holiday season on the farm.

After the tour was over, the students spent the next five weeks creating their game plans and putting their creativity to good use developing commercials and shooting them on the farm, formulating logos to rebrand the farm and figuring out how to bring more traffic to the farm.

The student presented the project to myself and to Nick, the manager of the farm who helped me judge the presentations. It really was a great afternoon of new ideas and new ways of looking at the business.

The Corporate Website for the Farm Division of the Paramus Team:

https://bergeccoparcconsultingfirmcom.wordpress.com/

The Presentation of “Visiting the Farms of Bergen County”:

The presentation is done in various languages: English, Spanish, Arabic, Albanian, Korean, and Persian.

The PowerPoint Presentation for the Presentation:

The Farm Commercial for Team One:

See PowerPoint Presentation

The Farm Commercial for Team Two:

https://www.youtubeeducation.com/watch?v=VKzaIIcvNWo

The Farm Commercial for Team Three:

See PowerPoint Presentation

The Farm Commercial for Team Four:

See PowerPoint Presentation

The Holiday Dinner Project (Quiz Four):

For Quiz Four, I developed the Holiday project to build comrade and prepare the students for their formal presentation. The students are requested by Corporate to create a Holiday menu, an invitation and a holiday greeting in English and Spanish. They have forty-five minutes to create all this and it is always fun to watch how it all comes together.

The PowerPoint presentation on the Holiday Project:

The video on the Holiday Project:

The Presentation Day December 11th, 2024:

I have to admit I was a little nervous about the Presentation to the Farm that morning. Nick , the manager of the farm showed up on time as well as several parents and friends of the students showed up to watch as well. It ended up being a very fine Presentation with not too many hiccups and I was very proud of the students for all their hard work on the project. Since much of the work was done ahead of time, there was time to fine tune the project before the Presentation and that made a difference.

What I liked about the Presentation was the at the Introduction was done in English and Arabic with my Introduction in English and Spanish. About six languages were spoken during the Presentation and I saw some students confidence rise when they spoke in their native tongue. This gave the Presentation a more International appeal and I hope for that when people watch these videos all over the world in the future.

Me with my SVP of Operations Moamen Abdallah and President Gianna Cantatore after the presentation

The Corporate shot of me with the Paramus Farm Team after the Presentation

What I liked about the projects that this Team created is that they are so workable and can be adapted quickly with not a lot of expenses. Since the farm has all the products the Teams used either to raise money or use as refreshments, its a win win for the farm.

I found Nick, the Manager of the farm, to be very open to the student’s suggestions and it gave him many new ways of looking at the farm. After the Presentation was over, there was time for a Question & Answer session where Nick made some really good points. The students did an excellent job creating menus for the restaurant, interesting ideas on promoting the ice cream, bakery and honey businesses and general merchandising and packaging ideas to promote all the wonderful merchandise sold at the farm. It really was an afternoon of creative Marketing and all of this was done in five weeks.

What was the best part of this project was that I felt we made a real contribution in promoting this wonderful farm for domestic and foreign tourism and hope it has an impact in the farm’s future.

Now you have to go and try their farm burger!

Yum!

The Farm during the Christmas holidays after the project was over December 2024:

The outside of the farm decorated for Christmas

The decorations were very festive

The outside of the farm at the holidays

The inside of the Farm Stand Restaurant during the holidays

The delicious looking holiday pies at the farm stand

The farm is a lot of fun any time of the year.

The Armour-Stiner Octagon House 45 West Clinton Avenue Irvington, NY 10533

The Armour-Stiner Octagon House at Christmas time

The formal Dining Room

The Second Floor Christmas tree

The first floor Reception Room

The history of the Armour-Stiner Octagon House with the Irvington Historical Society

Irvington Historical Society 131 Main Street Irvington, NY 10533

The Irvington Historical Society at 131 Market Street in Irvington, NY

The Permanent Collection on the history Irvington, NY

The permanent collection

The permanent collection at the museum

The Main Gallery of the Museum

Noble Pie 137 Main Street Beacon, NY 12508

The selection of beverages at Noble Pie

The store is a beautiful bakery/cafe with a nice selection of pies

They give you a very generous slice of pie

Harriet Tubman Museum of New Jersey 632 Lafayette Street Cape May, NJ 08204

The Harriet Tubman Museum at 632 Lafayette Street in Cape May, NJ

The Main Gallery

The main gallery at the museum

Uncle Bill’s Pancake House 261 Beach Avenue Cape May, NJ 08204

Uncle Bill’s Pancake House in Cape May, NJ

The restaurant at Christmas time is a lot of fun and always busy

It’s all about pancakes and sausage at Uncle Bill’s Pancake House

My Life as a Fireman: Bergen County Firemen’s Home Association: December Meeting and Christmas Party December 1st, 2024

The members of the Bergen County Firemen’s Home Association at our Annual Christmas Party at the NJ State Firemen’s Home in Boonton, NJ

The Naylis family singers

Video of the girls singing their Christmas songs:

The entertainment joining in singing Christmas carols

Me and Resident Dog , Wells, taking our annual picture together

The members just elected me as President of the Bergen County Firemen’s Home Association for 2025

Salem Fire Museum 166 East Broadway Salem, NJ 08079

The front of the museum at 166 East Broadway in Salem, NJ

The main floor of the museum

Second Floor gallery of the Salem Fire Museum

Alloway Township History Museum 49 Greenwich Street (Room 216) Alloway, NJ 08001

The historical building houses the museum at 49 Greenwich Street

The historical treasures at the museum

The historical Native American display