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Press Release 2006.06.01
Suquamish Students Present Pond Project at IslandWood Pond Kids Share An Environmental Mission At “Make A Difference Summit”
(Bainbridge Island, WA) Students from Suquamish Elementary were among seven Puget Sound area Schools returning to IslandWood this week to share stories of community stewardship projects they are working on in their home neighborhoods.
Suquamish Elementary’s Gelkal’i - “Basket Pond” - has received national recognition including the President’s Environmental Youth Award presented to the Suquamish “Pond Kids” in 2003 by the director of the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. And they received their second Kitsap County Commissioners Environmental Youth Award this year.
IslandWood’s annual “Make-A Difference Summit” brings students from many different schools back to the Bainbridge Island outdoor learning center to share presentations about their accomplishments at home.
As part of their IslandWood educational experience, 4th, 5th and 6th grade students follow up in their own communities with projects incorporating some of what they’ve learned during their four-day adventures at IslandWood.
Suquamish Elementary students have been visiting IslandWood for the past five years, and their environmental restoration project at Suquamish Elementary has flourished over time. Sharing their inspiration with others seems to come naturally.
“It is central to our mission,” says school librarian and Pond Kids organizer, Jan Jackson. “The kids are used to reporting back [to their classmates] each week, and things like the “Make a Difference Summit’ are a natural extension of that. They know they have to be the storytellers that get the next batch of Pond Kids trained to pass on the story too.”
This year, Suquamish Elementary’s presentation featured news of a worm-bin the students use to recycle their school’s food waste. The Pond Kids helped design, build and stock the bin with worms that produce compost for their pond and the surrounding habitat. The project was inspired by a similar worm-bin the students learned about at IslandWood.
“I think the Pond Kids really look up to the IslandWood staff as role models,” says Jackson. “They see them out in the world doing important environmental work and this gives them the idea that they could do the same kind of things as adults... They expect to change the world and chances are, they will!”
