Marilyn G. Rabb (MGR) Foundation’s Advisory Board Chair, Jayni Chase was recently featured in Woman to Woman Magazine.  Jayni had the opportunity to speak about the way in which she lives out a sustainable life highlighting the work of GREEN Community Schools.  Here are some words from Jayni on why she has embraced a green lifestyle.

“I’m involved in becoming more green because it’s important to me. This is not about making people feel guilty about what they’re doing. On the contrary, everybody needs to do what’s right for them by taking ownership of what they’re doing and how they’re doing it” – Jayni Chase

Our National Executive Director Phil Koch was also given the opportunity to speak about the importance of providing every community with education opportunities around sustainable and green practices.

“To truly change our world, sustainable practices must happen in every community. Environmental education is completely missing in our urban pubic high schools. This epidemic will only make the racial achievement gap that much greater.” – Phil Koch

Please check out the article!

http://www.w2wmagazine.com/2012/05/03/253/

The Environmental Justice Club at Al Raby High School met on May 2nd.   Sam Burkhardt from the Chicago Ornithological Society stopped by to share his passion and wisdom of local birds found in the area.  The students were  excited to learn about all the different types of birds as well as how humans impact the bird habitats and health. We are hoping to get out to the garden in the next couple of weeks–and when we do the students will be able to identify all the birds that fly by!

We made it to sunny Denver, Colorado for the Green Schools National Conference.  Al Raby School for Community and Environment brought a group of five students as representatives.  This trip was a trip full of first times for many students.  Their first plane ride, their first time out of Illinois, their first national conference, their first time trying seitan (wheat gluten fake meat) hot wings, and even their first time staying away from home!  All of the students attended the Student Summit on Monday where they were broken up into four content strands: Food, Water, Resources, and Energy.  During the summit they had a chance to share ideas and exchange stories about issues their schools face.  Each group came up with an action plan to help address the issues they discussed.  On Tuesday and Wednesday the students attended the regular conference breakout sessions and attended keynote address.  One keynote speaker in particular had a profound impact on a few of the students, Majora Carter, who formed the non-profit environmental justice solutions organization Sustainable South Bronx.  The Environmental Justice Club plans to stay in touch with Carter since they too are becoming environmental leaders.  The students came up with an action list of ideas from the conference.  Here are some of their ideas: working to use natural sunlight in classrooms, supplying all incoming freshman with reusable Al Raby water bottles, creating an effective healthy eating campaign through direct cause and effect, and working to use teenagers as voices for environmental causes (good gossip).  Over the next few weeks we will be creating an energy conservation plan which will include many of these ideas.  Stay tuned for more on the energy conservation plan!

The Green Schools National Conference is an opportunity for The Green Schools National Network to celebrate the great work that  Green Schools across the country are accomplishing. The MGR Foundation’s Green Community Schools (GCS) program will be playing a huge part in the 2nd Annual Green Schools Conference in Denver from February 27-29.  This is the only national gathering of K-12 leaders and educators coming together to make their schools and districts green and healthy centers of academic excellence.  GCS will be sending 21 students, 7 teachers, 1 assistant principal and 4 MGR Foundation staffers to this exciting event from.  These students and supporters represent the great cities of Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, and Chicago.

GCS  will be providing expertise to other attendees on the subject of best practice of utilizing Green Strategies in academic settings.  Our Board President Jayni Chase will be serving as an expert on the importance of partnerships and creating strong networks when looking to provide Green based outreach.    MGR Foundation Executive, Phil Koch will be serving on a panel that discusses the importance of  ensuring diversity in the Green Schools Movement.  The GCS students will take part in the Student Summit by having their ideas heard and taking in new information regarding embracing a Green lifestyle.

For more information about the 2nd Annual Green Schools Conference please click here.

Western Teachers learned how to integrate environmental concepts at GreenPower and Envirolution workshop. Here they were practicing a class curriculum that has students explore energy efficient cooling strategies by building and improving upon a small model house and then testing the internal temperature.

We recently showed Edison’s Green Council the documentary Bag It, which follows narrator Jeb Berrier as he embarks on a journey to unravel the world of single-use disposable plastic (more specifically plastic bags, coffee cups, and water bottles). How much plastic does the average person contribute to the landfill each year? Could the chemicals in plastic be making us sick? This film has the answers and they’re frightening! What starts as a film about plastic bags evolves into a full-scale investigation into the effect of plastic on the environment and human health. The film is as accessible to youth as it is to adults–combining sufficient scientific evidence to be credible with a cute soundtrack and easy to understand statistics. If you purchase the educator version you can get the disk in 45 and 60 minute segmants along with an easy to use curriculum.  We’ll be writing more about the specific chemicals found in plastic and how to avoid them so stay tuned!

Minneapolis Public Schools recently hired a new Director of Nutrition Services and he has big plans to change the food being served in our cafeterias. Swiss-borne Bertrand Weber previously pioneered the efforts to get more local, plant-based foods, along with scratch cooking, into the Hopkins school district with great success.

Although Hopkins and Minneapolis are quite different operationally–Hopkins had all operating kitchens whereas Minneapolis has none, for example–Weber is confident that he can introduce things like salad bars and more ethnically appropriate cooking into Minneapolis school lunches within the next two years. Edison’s Student and Green Councils hope to meet with Bertrand in the coming weeks to discuss their take on school lunch and what they’d like to see improved. Click here for the full article.

Western High School students plan to attend the first ever Las Vegas, Alliance for Climate Education student leadership training! We will be meeting at The Ralph & Betty Engelstad Clubhouse from 10 am – 3 pm.

Andrew Limas, a member of the Western Green Warriors student group presented to the Clark County School District Educational Board. As part of his presentation he spoke about the engagement in the Green Warriors, which sparked a lot of interest in the school board. More presentations to come!

To start the new year off on a healthy (and green) note, Minneapolis Public Schools is offering their first ever Parent Walk-to-School Workshop this Saturday at NorthCommonsPark(1801 James Ave N). I was lucky enough to sit in on the December meeting with the Safe Routes to School working group (the group who came up with and planned this event) and these folks are seriously dedicated to biking, walking, and all things healthy!  The workshop will be from 9:45-11:30 am and coffee/bagels will be provided.

Though this workshop is geared to parents, grandparents, and guardians, it is appropriate for anyone interested in walking and biking to school efforts. The workshop will feature how to plan walk/bike-to-school events, walking buses, and pedestrian safety when leading these efforts. Community Organizations that support walking and biking efforts such as the Minneapolis Bike Walk Ambassadors Trips for Kids will also be on hand.

All participants will be entered in a raffle which will include prizes like a subscription to the awesome bike sharing system Nice Ride, stop paddles and vests, and hula hoops for your school’s playground. You should go home with a lot of print resources, a new friend or two, and some incentives to jump start your next walk-to-school effort.

-Ash