As part of our EEK-O-Halloween program, we partnered with six Los Angeles charities to go into classrooms and share knowledge about the environment in our Environmental Forums. We started our outreach to our 6 non-profits and 51 schools in February. By May, ten school presentations were confirmed and 1,379 students participated in the Forum series. We also confirmed interest and participation from 23 LA-area schools in our Forum series in conjunction with EEK-O-HALLOWEEN (EOH) in October.
Several schools were studying water issues because of California’s drought situation, making Algalita, the Friends of the Los Angeles River, and LA Waterkeeper our most popular groups. More schools have school gardens and are discussing food and nutrition in more sustainable ways than in the past, making Food Forward very popular. Overall the schools felt that the program had wonderful and energetic presentations from our non-profit groups.
Generally the Education Coordinators considered their presentations as a wonderful opportunity to get their environmental messages out to students in our local schools. They were all willing, excited, and flexible in their scheduling to accommodate the schools. Both the Non-Profits and their Education Coordinators felt that the Students, Faculty, and Parents were inspired to take the concepts presented home and into their everyday lives.
– Recap by Patie Maloney