Call it canoeing and kayaking with a cause.

The not-for-profit HarborLab hosted a Solstice Paddle Monday night at Gantry Plaza State Park in Long Island City. It was a chance to enjoy the sunset on the first day of Summer, while promoting the group's work. HarborLab hosts boating tours with educational themes . The group also helps clean up and monitor waterways like the Newtown Creek. The boating helps even young kids become interested in ecology.

" We get kids out there and they start getting really excited about science you know they are staring to discover patterns and species that they didn't would be here. Something basic as the tidal cycle and how it relates to the moon and then gives them a whole news sense of where they are in the universe and also what fish are living here," said HarborLab founder Erik Baard.

The theme to Monday's night's event was solar power. Kayakers and canoers received information on the importance of solar energy. For more information on all of HarborLab's events, go to .