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 Parents, grandparents children, and other interested community members flocked to the GreeningUSA "Get Your Green On" Spring Festival held at Blodgett School on the Near West Side of Syracuse. Over 350 participants traveled around the Blodgett gymnasium participating in environmentally themed stations, enjoying festive games and crafts, and enjoying dance performances by local dance groups. Participants pedaled to power light bulbs, planted vegetable seeds and learned about a planet friendly diet, wrote letters to the president about green schools, painted a rain barrel, learned about green jobs, played a "dunk your junk" recycling game, played games introducing the concept of sustainability, took a penny poll, talked about bicycling and using a car share program, took a quiz about all that they learned and more.
Upon entry to the festival, participants received a "Get Your Green On Passport" which they took to 10 separate stations each with its own interactive learning activity. Participants that completed their passports were awarded green prizes such as compact fluorescent light bulbs, gardening gloves, vegetable seeds, organic shopping bags, environmentally friendly cleaning supplies, etc.
The Festival is presented in collaboration with OCRRA, Naef Recycling, Cornell Cooperative Extension, the Syracuse City School District and the Amos Project. Funding is provided by the NYS Pollution Prevention Institute through a grant from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.
Highlights of activities from each station included:
1. Sustainability, So what's the big deal?
The idea of sustainability was introduced to children and adults through two age appropriate activities. In groups of four, children learned about how to sustain a supply of candy (our renewable resource). Each turn children took as much candy as they wanted out of a shared pile. Whatever candy remained was replenished after each turn. In most cases, children depleted the resource immediately and the resource (candy) could not regenerate. In subsequent turns, children learned that if they understood how the candy supply renewed itself, communicated with each other and shared, they could all have plenty of candy indefinitely.
Parents were introduced to the idea that a sustainable community is one that integrates economic, social and environmental issues. Groups of adults rolled three colored dice, each of which represented one of these three pillars of sustainability; each side of the dice represented an issue related to one particular pillar. They were then challenged to draw connections between specific issues, for example between poverty, air quality, employment. Give it a try!
Facilitated by: Gregory Michel, Cornell Cooperative Extension
2. Food: green and on the cheap
This station highlighted an educational game which made the connection between food choices and protecting the environment, a planting station so participants could grow their own food, and tips about how to purchase affordable and healthful foods that have minimal impact on the planet. Initial questions such as, "What do greenhouse gases do?" and "What are some results of global warming?" established important background information.
People were then asked to take colorful representations of food and divide them into two baskets: one basket for food which can be produced locally and the other for food which must be brought in from a distance. They were also asked to take other representations of food and divide them between those which are derived from plants and those which are derived from animals.
Facilitated by: Linda DeStefano and Debbie Walter of the Sierra Club, Christina Sauve Cooperative Federal Credit Union, Robin Neal CNY Foodbank, Kira Crawford
3. Home Heat Home
Energy experts set up an Energy Cycle and an “Insul-learner” for visitors to experience creating energy and understand the benefits of home insulation. CFL bulbs were distributed along with information and pamphlets on home energy saving tips, energy-efficiency grant and loan programs, and tax-incentives.
The Energy Cycle utilizes a converted stationary “exercise bike” for visitors to pedal and generate an electrical current to power compact fluorescent bulbs compared to incandescent bulbs. A variety of lighting combinations, switches, and gauges further help people understand energy usage and the benefits of CFL’s.
The Insul-learner has an incandescent lamp in the center that radiates heat through four cavities, each with a different type of insulation. The typical insulations used are: fiberglass, cellulose, foam, and air. Four thermometers are inserted through the lid on the outside edge of each insulation chamber. Plotting the temperature changes of each cavity graphically reveals the efficacy of each type of insulation. All visitors to our table found the device helpful in understanding the benefits of insulation.
Facilitated by: Ken Bobis of OCC, Dale Sherman of energy wright
4. Green Jobs and Education
Festival goers were greeted with a "Guess that Job" game. Objects such as vegetable and food scraps, parsnip and cellulose were hints for participants to guess what green profession they are associated with (Vegetable and food scraps = composting/soil/mulch; Parsnip = market gardening/farming; Cellulose insulation = weatherization; Third-Hand Tool = bicycle repair/delivery jobs). Handouts for various green jobs such as landscaping, weatherization with Peace Inc, Student Conservation Association internships, The Northside Colllaboratory's GreenTrain program, a recent Post Standard article on Green Jobs, SBDC brochures for business start-ups, Alchemical Nursery Quinta Essentia fiscal sponsorship info, Chamber business directory, etc. were available. A display also described the Com Ex building project, and Deconstruction. A computer slide show described CNY Works' services.
Facilitated by: Frank Cetera, Alchemical Nursery Project
5. Your Green School
Participants were given a 30 second explanation about healthy green schools and then invited to write a letter to President Obama explaining hopes for their own green school. A display included a list of some of the things that make a school green - such as clean indoor air - and those were attached to a photo illustrating the point, such as a photo of a little girl with an inhaler, linking poor indoor air quality with respiratory problems. Several children pointed to the photo and said, "I have one of those". Two display boards gave simple explanations of green strategies that make schools healthier places. Each strategy was accompanied by a photo that would help explain the strategy. An adult woman decided to write a letter to the president because her child has asthma and she lost her sister to asthma last year. Asthma is linked to poor indoor air quality. 50 letters were written to President Obama.
Facilitated by Diane Brandli, GreeningUSA, US Green Building Council Green School Advocate
6. Transportation
Cycling advocate and BikeCNY member Peter King shared the benefits of bicycling and displayed maps of Syracuse's growing network of bicycle trails. Representatives of CuseCar, a new car share program aiming to provide a sustainable transportation program in Syracuse, showed festival goers one of their hybrid vehicles and educated participants about the benefits of membership including, reduction of carbon footprint, elimination of car payments and effective sharing of resources.
Facilitated by: Peter King, BikeCNY, Cuse Car
7. Keepers of the Waters
Sarah Eckel of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment discussed the greater context of green infrastructure in Syracuse and shared how individuals could take action to stop sanitary sewer overflows into Onondaga Lake. A "Rain Catchers" display showcased a rain barrel as an example of green infrastructure practiced at home. The hands-on activity at the station was painting a rain drop on the rain barrel. People enjoyed the idea of having a rain barrel to provide a free source of water to use in their lawns and gardens. Residents that could not have a rain barrel because they did not have gutters or downspouts at their house were presently surprised that rain chains could be a less expensive and attractive alternative to downspouts. Many people asked where they could purchase large food-grade containers that can be built into rain barrels and children had fun painting the rain drops.
Facilitated by: Sarah Eckel, of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, and Christine Moskell of Cornell Cooperative Extension
8. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
The recycling and waste reduction table was decorated with a string of recyclable plastic bottles as well as Blue Bins and a large recycling backdrop. In an effort to teach attendants the correct recycling rules, they played "dunk your junk" a trash sorting activity. A number of items, some trash, some recyclable, were laid on the table. Each person had to pick three things and place them in the proper bin – either a trash can or a Blue Bin. Kids and their parents were enthusiastic to participate. They received a prize for participating (reusable bag, T-shirt, hat, etc.). One kid returned 10 times just to play the game again and again – not for the prize, but for the simple satisfaction of doing it right. Towards the end of the event, a Blodgett School Green Team member, helped hand out prizes and even facilitate the game a few times.
Facilitated by Sarah Stewart from OCRRA, and Jen Spoor from Naef Recycling
9. Government Leadership
A "Penny Poll" was conducted to give participants an opportunity to think about how they might govern if they were in charge. Participants were asked to distribute 10 pennies among various categories of government spending based on how they think their tax money should be spent. The Penny Poll displayed a large jars with various options including environmental protection, job training, housing development, health care, education and childcare, deficit reduction, energy independence, agriculture and food safety, and national defense.
Facilitated by: Bob Kehoe, the Green Party
10. My Dream Neighborhood
The Dream Neighborhood station gave attendees an opportunity to show what they had learned at the festival with a Sustainability Quiz. About 80 people wrote short responses to questions about how to reduce waste, improve energy efficiency, make neighborhoods more pedestrian- and bike-friendly, and generally improve our local quality of life. Hundreds more took a quiz about their knowledge of recycling and greenhouse gas issues.
Facilitated by: Steve Lloyd of SU and Rachel May of SU and SUNY-ESF
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