Green in Action Honorary Mention
Greenway Elementary School
Bisbee, AZ
The Greenway Youth Garden’s Mission is to provide direct access to a plant rich garden environment for elementary age children in Bisbee Arizona. The garden is used as an experiential learning lab to increase children’s food experience and learn about nutrition, life cycles of plants and other sustainable topics.
Along with the garden, Greenway has an active recycling program. Greenway Elementary School held their first annual Earth Day Celebration on April 25. The celebration included an all school assembly in the morning where Sarah Meggison, the Greenway Garden Coordinator, honored students who have worked hard at making the world a greener place. Kindergarteners were honored for their efforts in the plastic bag recycling collection contest. Students from Megan Shea’s fourth grade class along with Lucy Edelen, Zoe Dietrich’s fifth grade, and Mia Potenza-Parsons, Holly Nelson’s second grade class, were honored for their forward thinking and refusing plastic bags in the first place. Students from Luz Badgero’s fourth grade class and Miss Shea’s class were honored for their poetry that won an Earth Day Poetry contest sponsored by the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Olivia Conklin recited her poem to the whole school. The Man Who Planted Trees by French author Jean Giono was shown to the student body. It is a short film about one man who planted an entire forest all by himself and recreated a beautiful ecosystem.
In the afternoon, Greenway students went outside to the Earth Day Festival. Booths and stations were set up and students were allowed to wander around and learn about different topics. Earth Day bookmarks were handed out and acrostic poems were created. Fourth grade students from Miss Shea’s class educated other students about renewable resources, non-renewable resources, and reusable bags. There was a recycled art booth where students could decorate plastic water bottles, and a there was also a booth called Predators not Pesticides. Volunteers from Bisbee Farmer’s Market educated students about the market and handed out coupons. The City of Bisbee also participated, educating students on the importance of recycling and how to recycle. Two trees were planted for the Arizona Centennial Tree Planting project. A Chinese Pistache now stands in the center of the garden, and a Desert Willow adds to the native landscaping on the grounds outside of the garden.
