Magnolia Tree Project
Thomas Williamson
Created and led by three Duke undergraduates, the Magnolia Tree Project is a free two-week summer program which teaches rising fifth graders selected from Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership elementary schools that each person can make a unique and lasting impact on his or her community. Specific projects we undertook this year include planting gardens and a Magnolia Tree at Pettigrew Rehabilitation Center and EK Powe Elementary, testing a local stream, and conduction a stream cleanup project. Other activities included volunteering at Urban Hope Ministries Homeless Shelter, writing poems for pillowcases, exploring the Walltown community through a scavenger hunt, and fundraising for a charity of the students' choice.
Greening up the Strawberry Festival
Central Park School for Children
Central Park School for Children hosts the Strawberry Festival annually to benefit both outdoor learning for the school and improvements to Central Park. Two years ago, parents and students began working to reduce the amount of trash generated by the festival, attended by close to 3,000 people each year. By setting up "Green-Up Stations", families could sort their recycling, trash, compost, or reusable materials. This year, only 15 bags of trash were thrown away, 55 bags of compost were taken to Whole Foods, and an industrial size dumpster was halfway full of recycling.
Teaching in Action
Dorothea Pierce
Here is Super Linette, our local recycling guru, passing on knowledge to kids at a school here in Durham. Linette works for TFC who provides her to local teachers for hands on recycling presentations! You go, Linette!!
