Day 5 - Energy and Friday Fun Day!

We finished the camp connecting all of the themes together and how they relate to energy. How much energy can we save by the actions we take? We all can make a difference one action at a time and everyone experienced this everyday this week. We started the morning watching The Story of Stuff which really drives home the points we studied this week. We took action with our clothing and book swap (pictured below). Everyone brought items to swap with one another and the campers got to experience first hand how this action of re-using does its part to take care of the planet. They also learned that reducing the amount of stuff we consume is even better than re-using.


Jason Darling met up with us at the Re-Store to give us a tour which included a walk through the door maze, rows and rows of doors to be re-used in another building project. Thank you Jason!


In the bowels of the warehouse Jason asked the campers to find the spider. And by the looks on their faces, they were pleased they looked up at the ceiling and found it. My goodnes was it HUGE, with legs spanning 12 feet!!!

Did you know that if all American households changed out just 1 lightbulb to a compact flourescent bulb it would be like taking 1 million cars off the road in the course of a year?! Not only did the campers go home with their own flourescent bulb, they generated their own electricity today that could have powered who knows what! We had loads of fun on the slides after eating our lunches in Fouts Park. Eventually, we headed back and planted seeds for the campers to take home and grow. We ended the day celebrating Gloria's birthday with juicy fruit popsicles! Enjoy all of these electrifying parting shots! Thank you for a wonderful week together and continue to make a difference, taking care of the planet!





Whoah!

Day 4 - WASTE Not Want Not

Stephanie enjoyed preparing her very own re-usable container with trail mix today. A perfect snack for our trek down The Village Trail that leads to downtown. The campers waited patiently to enjoy their snack at Maritime Heritage Park after our tour of our city's main recycling center. Did you know that Northwest Recycling has been around for 100 years?

Marty shared with us how they recycle everything from wire to metal to cans, like you see stacked up here, to different kinds of paper. It was a very busy place with lots of recycling going on! The campers learned that it's better to re-use, boxes for example, than recycle.

We enjoyed seeing the bailing machine and the stacked up bails of mixed paper pictured here. One bail of mixed paper weighs as much as an average size car!

And this is where the bottles, cans and plastic get dumped and sorted.

On the way back from the recycling center we put all of our learning about waste and caring for the planet into action. We ended up picking up 3 lbs. of trash and 3 lbs. of items to be recycled. The whole Village Trail was litter free when we were done. It was nice for the campers to hear "thank you" from the people passing by. We all had a hard time believing that people would just throw trash on the ground. If you come across trash on the ground, just pick up the trash. It takes a village to keep our earth clean.

Everyone shared a goofy time together at Carl Lobe Park, after an nice picnic in the shade of the park's HUGE tree!

Day 3 - FOOD and FUN at Fairhaven Farmers Market

We started our day by decorating hand-sewn bags that each camper took home. These are re-usable produce bags that anyone can make at home with any scrap material and add to their collection of re-usable shopping bags. No more plastic! A special thank you to my friend Heather of Textiles by Heather who sewed them up!

We set out on our adventure catching 2 buses to Fairhaven and 2 buses back. On the bus to Fairhaven, we were on a near full bus with 23 passengers...all taking a SMART TRIP across town.

Stephanie buys a beautiful tomato to take home to her Mom!

Celeste buys blackberries from Katie!

Haley and Mackenzie buy blackberries from Katie too!

Sophia and Cami enjoying Icing on the Cake cupcakes after our picnic lunch.

Leapfrogging and laughter on Fairhaven Village Green, one of our city's parks!

We took photos with the farmers from the book, Simone Goes to the Market, and this one was the best photo by far! Be sure to click on the photo to make it bigger to see Stephanie's amazingly crossed eyes!

Resting and waiting for the Red Line at the end of a fun-filled day at the farmers market!

Day 2 - AIR Our air was super clean today!

The campers learned about the AQI (Air Quality Index), what pollutes the air, and how to clean up the air! It's going to take everyone's help. Our AQI today was 26 out of 500. We even had a breeze that propelled our kites up high. Everyone brought a kite today and had fun running around with them.

Gloria helped Cami get hers flying high!

Haley flew her rainbow high while Olivia helped Celeste get her kite going!

Stephanie's kite almost made Stephanie fly away as it was bigger than her!

More outdoor fun playing and picnicking at Lorraine Ellis Park. Below you will find some examples of waste free lunches that the campers ate today, just in time for collecting school lunch menu ideas! See if you can you find Sophia's "hugging carrots" from her garden that she proudly held up for everyone.

Our 2nd session is off to an ENCHANTING start! Day 1 - WATER

Today the campers learned about the water cycle and different ways to take care of this precious resource! Did you know that it takes 9.3 gallons to process one can of fruit? One way to save water is to grow your own food. On our walk today, we traveled 9 blocks and saw 29 houses growing food and 4 raising chickens!

We had an enchanting tour in Grandma Mary Lou's garden! She had a section she called her fragrance garden on the left, with neighbor Nate's garden in the back, and right in the center of her garden, which is where she starts her plantings, is her AMAZING "chocolate garden" loaded with many varieties of flowers in different shades of brown and other colors, surrounded by a canopy of chocolate sunflowers. This photo captures its magic. From this center, the garden trails around in concentric circles with flowers and vegetables growing side by side. She shared with everyone what she does to conserve water when watering her garden. The girls went home with bouquets of flowers and interesting vegetables like lemon cucumbers and round carrots! You must take a pick from the sidewalk on Henry between Jefferson and W. North. Thank you Grandma Mary Lou for a magical day!

You must see a close up view of a chocolate sunflower...and they really do smell like chocolate while showing off their pretty chocolate color!

Nextdoor neighbor Nate grows his prize winning pumpkins in Grandma Mary Lou's garden, and boy they were HUGE! Everyone was very careful to not step on the vines. All of the greenery you see feeds those 2 pumpkins alone. WOW!

Zoe, in green t-shirt, shared with everyone what she was growing in her garden. Zoe was a camper in the last session and was honored to have us pay her and her garden a special visit today! Thank you Zoe!

We enjoyed playing at Elizabeth Park after lunch...our inaugural park visit for the week!

Day 5 - ENERGY "...the ability to do work."

Last day was all about ENERGY, where does it come from and how we can use less to help take care of the planet...from how long our showers are, to where we shop, to what kind of food we eat, to how many cars are taken off the road when each house has 1 flourescent light bulb...how much energy is saved, in other words! The campers learned a TON and each day they took actions to help take care of the planet! Well done campers! Thank you for continuing to make a difference each and every day! Enjoy the photos below from the last day!

Our neighbor, Deb Robbins from www.drdandelion.com gave us a tour of her sustainable 'soap factory' and Vanessa is trying to guess which essential oil she is smelling. They smelled several and were able to guess most of them! Deb also showed themsome other ingredients and how she makes the soap too!

We toured the Re-Store to see how things can be re-sold and re-used versus thrown away.

Luckily the Re-Store had a bathroom we could use after taking this picture!

Fouts Park provided a nice place for a picnic and playground fun. We visited 7 parks in 5 days, all by taking SMART trips (www.whatcomsmarttrips.org) walking or riding a bus.

Jada writing down which seeds she wanted to plant!

Julia is planting radish seeds!

Julia and Zoe enjoying popsicles by the 'take action' posters at the end of a very warm and wonderful last day!

Day 4 - WATER The Water Cycle and more!

Vanessa's family garden and happy campers!


Zoe proudly showed us her very own garden!

Ask any girl at our camp about the water cycle and they'll tell you all about evaporation, condensation, precipitation going round and round! We learned different ways to save water and how much of the earth has available water for plants and animal...only 1%! The girls learned how to NOT run the tap to rinse their dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. We took a trek in our neighborhood to continue our search for more city parks to picnic in along with how many houses grow food gardens and chickens. In the 20 blocks we've covered so far, 42 houses are growing food and 2 have chickens. We still have more blocks to see tomorrow.

On our trek we visited my friend Caroline's garden and she showed us what she was growing. Actually Julie knew all of the plants as she is growing them too! Caroline explained how to save water by watering the garden efficiently and also let the girls harvest snap and snow peas along with spinach, chard and chives.
Nasturtiums from Caroline's garden! Yummy!

We enjoyed a glass of sun tea before leaving to visit Vanessa's family garden and Zoe's personal garden. After a picnic lunch (Check out the photos below of the waste free lunches the campers brought today), we came back and enjoyed a storytelling video about Walter the Water Molecule! We were drenched in water facts by the end of the day!