Choosing to Participate:
A Social Justice Service Project on Sustainability

The day of learning was yesterday and it was a eventful day for the entire middle school. We had two meetings that began and ended the events. Our group did our project but it could have been a better. The 5th, 6th, and 7th graders weren’t very interested in the project but it was still as informative as we could have made it. The completed work represented how our group worked togeather when doing our tree collages and the canvas was a full forest. After the two group activities we had the second meeting where two represntatives that some of my classmates worked with talked about what they do and how that works with sustainability and what message the send out to other people. In middle school meeting, the last representative had came and told us about his experiances. He is a professional and has viewd many schools making a difference in our environment. He also showed us some statistics and gave examples of how we can help in the urban area we live in. It was an inspriring talk and i started thinking of ideas of how our school can go beyond what we are already doing to help. I was thinking we can have a greenhouse on the sections of the roof that aren’t used by the playground or to take away the part of the playground to put in the greenhouse. All grades could add to it and see it grow and change. It would be benificial to a lot of our subjects, including lunch, and would save the school money. That was just one of my ideas from listening while the mad described the other schools that had made ideas to change their own community.

The sustainability project is tomorrow and i feel that we are set for the project. My group members include Sasha and Amy and our project is called Make Trees, Save the planet. The in depth message that we are trying to send to the people working with us is to conserve as many tree projects as possible. The project we are going to have people do is to make collages in the shape of trees out of recycled magazines. When we presented our ideas to Kitty, our adult reviewer, she suggested that we give really detailed descriptions on what conserving trees really means and we as kids can do to help. A part of being a progressive school is to have its members come up with their own opinions to add to a group idea. Kitty suggested that we ask people how they would change their “tree usage” and then write it on the board to show them the accumulated ideas. Kitty helped us really add a greater meaning to our project and i really hope that people will enjoy it and share our experience.

Amy and I finally met up with Renee Schoonbeek, a representative of the city community board. She told us about what exactly she, and the other three people in the office do. Renee first told us that there are 10 neighborhood areas in manhattan that community boards take care of. Her zone consists of the top area of Hell’s Kitchen to somewhere around 23rd street and over several avenues. i saw how big of an area they took up and asked her if its hard to look after that many people and areas. she gad said that it wasn’t because they make sure to keep their contact with the community organised but not office like and buissnessy; people dont even need to schedule a meeting, they just have to show up. Renee went on to explaining how the company gets their communities opinions known to the NYC’s government before they make any new developments (ie: bars, restaurants, buildings). She said that the vote of the community is a democracy, if more are for something than against it, then her company would tell the city officials that the public suggests they should do whatever and then the city officials tell teh developers. So really, Renee’s company has no say in what happens, it’s just a suggestion. I didn’t really understand the point of the company if it’s a suggestion but she said that if their community area disagrees, then the develoers cannot proceed to build. Her company also gets suggestions and complaints from the members of their zone too. Her idea for Amy and I is to partner us up with one of the developers her company works with, One Million Trees NYC by Michael Bloomberg. It’s a lot easier to do an expose on this topic than the doors of hope one so this is what I’m deciding to do. Renee gave us three choices, the first one was to go out with some of the board members (they are volunteers that are a part of their zoned community) and to draw out areas on a map where we think trees could be planted; of corse there are things to consider when planning to plant a tree. I liked this option the most because it involves interacting with people who volunteer to do this every week and doesn’t involve public speaking or sitting in a meeting. The second option was to speak with local schools about tree planting, if they get a tree in front of the school, there should be some kids to learn how to take care of it until it turns into a full grown tree. The last option is to listen to a City Parks meeting about tree maintenance. Amy and I decided to do all three once. Renee was very nice and welcoming. This seems like it will be a great project to work farther on.

-BRIANNA

Last Friday Lilly, Henry, Jack G, David, and Gaia and I worked on the door that arrived sometime last week. Up until that point we had to start plotting out what we wanted to paint on the door that is inspirational to school children but also symbolizes that great things can come out of tragedies. What I am planning on painting is this watter drop that will have some famous New Orleans traits inside of it (music, Mardi Gras, food, etc), and then on the outside the drop there will be New York traits but not the usual touristic things (Empire state, big apple, taxis). I am going to do more personal icons in the city because I feel like it makes a greater connection that way. Also, while I was doing this, I realized that there is a lot of symbolism incorporated in the door. This made me feel like there is a hidden message in the door for the school who recieves the door that’s written in a creative way.

Amy and I helped Sasha and Taylor sell their baked goods to raise money for their organization. They were at the front area of our school after it ended. We went about to tell people about what the organization does and to see if they wanted to buy some of their merchanidise or donate to the cause. At first some of the parents seemed skeptical when we mentioned a bake sale but when we told them what it was for, a sense of recognition was present as the agreed to buy a cookie for their child or to donate $20. I found the buyers reaction to be appropriate what their group was doing because it showed that they cared and wanted to help in some way. Also, I liked how this certain activity was benificial and I thought about how easy it is. I was thinking that a lot more people could do this because it is so easy to do.

-Brianna

Henry, Ella, Maya, Amy, Lilly, Cameron, Aliza, Emma, Maya P.H. and I went to the first meeting of the city arts project. There were two representatives there, one was an old inhabitant of New Orleans, and another was the organizer of the Door project. They explained what the project is and asked us to come up with some ideas to paint on the door. The woman had told us that what we would be doing is called Global HeArt Warming; she said we are taking stand against global warming using our HEARTS and using ART. The door(s) we will paint are supposed to symbolize something that we feel should change in the way we run our lives to help out others. She explained that Hurricane Katrina was most likely caused by a speed up of global warming; and the theme of the doors is to give back. She told us to think about the question, “what would the Kids of New Orleans need to improve how they are living after the city’s reconstruction?” We are to then incorporate our answers into the door paintings along with the Mardi Gras spirit! This project is going to be very big and publicized so I cannot wait to start.

We have been contacting the people from City Park. We already emailed and called Anna Frederick, Mike Mcqueen and Sarah Erinsin several times, ad we were about to meet with them today on 42nd street at 2:45pm but we both agreed that it wouldn’t be easy for us to travel there every week. As a group we decided that we should try to get in contact with Jefferson Market Library. This weekend we will try to find and email and a phone number we can call them and make arrangements.