Earth Day Staunton goes Digital!

Earth Day Staunton Goes Digital!
Here is a week of actions for families to take together

Covid 19 has certainly impacted our lives. Schools closed, social distancing, and staying home. But we can still celebrate Earth Day’s 50th Anniversary. Here are some activities to do together as a family or individually. We will share seven different activities, one for each day, for the week leading up to Earth Day on April 22, plus a bonus activity. But if you need more time to be creative, follow your own schedule. Please share your creations so everyone can celebrate together, either by posting directly on Shenandoah Green’s Facebook page or by sending your material to our email at [email protected]. You can use your full name or just your first name, or initials if you wish, but please include your age if you are under 18.

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Day 1 (April 15 or today): Declutter and Donate

Pick one gently used item from your closet, toy chest, or house each day for the next week. At the end of the week put them all in a bag ready to be donated at a later date.

“Recycling clothes becomes a resource to people while helping those in need and the environment. On a social level, it’s a place where people can build a new identity out of used clothing that gives them greater mobility in the social world. On a community level, it builds a culture of recycling.” ~ Trustedclothes.com

Day 2 (April 16 or your date) -
Create Art!

Create a piece of art work celebrating the Earth or depicting climate change. Use only what you have in your house. If you have paints, crayons or colored pencils, create a picture. If you have chalk, create a sidewalk masterpiece. Rummage through the Christmas wrapping paper or the paper recycling and make a collage, or recycle items such as toilet paper rolls, bottle caps, wine corks, etc., into a three dimensional piece of art. Take photos of your art and either post them to our Facebook page or email them to us, so that they can be shared with others.

The Climate Reality Project, founded by Al Gore,provides training to individuals, like Joan, to become grass roots advocates in their home communities to tackle climate change.
For more information, visit https://www.climaterealityproject.org/

Zoom Event on April 16th at 6:30pm: Another Climate Reality and What We Can Do About It
Virtual meeting: Preparing for the Climate Crisis. Tune in at 6:30 pm to see/hear Joan Chapman of the Climate Reality Project, along with Gudrun Campbell, leader of the Youth Climate Strike talk about where we are and what we should do. Bonus: climate staff from Charlottesville and Albemarle will share the status of their Climate Action Plans. Presented by the Sierra Club and National Organization for Women.

You can join us on Zoom (meeting ID 433910771#) or live on Facebook. To join the meeting by phone in US: +1-470-250-9358 (meeting code 433910771#)or +1-470-381-2552 (meeting code 433910771#).

Please join us for a pandemic-free discussion.

Day 3 (April 17 or your date) - Celebrate Trees!

Here’s a video of a young activist and hero (https://youtu.be/aUCD_24cygQ). She is talking about how important trees are in fighting climate change. After watching the video, go outside and catalog all the trees that are in your yard. If you need to, take photos. Get good pictures of the leaves and bark. If you don’t have any trees, take a walk down the street or park and see what trees you find. Then go on the internet and try and name each tree and learn something about it. Look for saplings sprouting nearby the mature tree that you could transplant to your yard. Do you have space in your yard for a new tree and would like to water and watch it grow? Shenandoah Green and the City of Staunton have a wonderful new project to plant 2,701 trees, one for every child in the Staunton school district. If you would like one or possibly more of these trees in your yard, please contact us at [email protected].

Day 4 (April 18 or your date) -
Write a Poem!

Go on the internet and look up acrostic poems and haiku 5-7-5. Write an acrostic poem using the word, CLIMATE or EARTH or write a haiku poem celebrating the earth or about climate change. Before you start, you can Google search climate change, Earth Day, Greta Thunberg, sustainability, melting icebergs, how trees help the earth, bees, etc., or watch the movie, The Lorax. Here are two examples of haiku:

Baby koalas
Fleeing from massive bush fires
The message is clear
gt

Climate change is real
Floods, fires, storms, melting icebergs
Stop this destruction
gt

Send your poem to [email protected] to be shared with others. You can type it or take a photo of your poem. You can even illustrate your poem.

Day 5 (April 19 or your date) -
Be a Photographer!

Google search plastics in the oceans, gyres, methane gas from landfills, pollution. There is a lot at stake. Then go outside and take pictures of why we should protect and celebrate the earth. Pictures of flowers, trees, animals, sunsets, leaves floating on a stream, etc. Think about how precious the earth is and the impact humans have on the earth. Choose your best photo to share or a collage of three. Send to [email protected] to be shared with others.

Day 6 (April 20 or your date) -
Reuse Old Things

If you have an old shirt, pants, etc that you don’t want to throw out just because they have a hole, mend them fashionably. Here is an article that might be helpful! Or make a pillow out of pieces of scrap material. If you are not good with needles and thread, find old t-shirts that you can cut up to use as rags instead of using paper towels. Or find a way to repurpose something in your house such as using a tin can as a planter, wee jars as tea candle holders, something useful from a plastic gallon jug (search the internet), fun shaped jars as flower vases. Plant some flower seeds in them or pick flowers from your yard, and put the jars all about the house. Have other ideas? Share them with us at [email protected].

Day 7 (April 21 or your date)-
Reduce your Carbon Footprint!

Walk around the house and take note of all the light bulbs that are not LED or halogen. Make a plan to replace old incandescent light-bulbs with halogen—or better still, LED ones. Turn your water heater down a little. Turn your thermostat up two to four degrees in the summer and down two to four degrees in the winter. Don’t forget to wear a sweater inside in the winter and cool clothing in the summer. Check windows to see if you need insulated or sun blocking curtains to keep the heat out in summer and cold out in the winter.

Bonus Activity - Forage for Food!

Look on the internet for a recipe using dandelions. Go outside and pick dandelion greens or flowers and make the recipe you found. Take a photo, share your recipe, and send to [email protected] to be shared with others.

April 22 - Share!

Happy Earth Day! Call a parent, grandparent, family member or friend who may be unable to get out and about and share what you have been doing to celebrate Earth Day and what you have learned. Or call them each day when you have finished that day’s activities. Thanks for participating in our online Earth Day Celebration!