I am excited to share a quick brag about this past weekend’s GE Recycling & Beyond workshop. On February 2, 2019, despite the pouring rain and the recent LAUSD strike, we welcomed 13 teachers and students onto the campus of Parras Middle School in Redondo Beach to learn about campus waste reduction projects. Participants were led through a series of waste reduction activities, presentations, and a demonstration of the Parras MS campus waste system, given by the school’s very own Green Team.

The Captain of the Parras Middle School Green Team, Evan (above, in the green pinnie jersey), guided workshop participants through a demonstration of their campus waste system, very impressively. For thirty minutes he explained the logistics of their highly efficient and well managed system, which is almost entirely sustained by the students on campus, not the school staff. Attendees learned how Parras Middle School’s Green Team and Kompost Kids manage the waste stations during lunch time, and how handling the waste works into their school days. Those in attendance were not only impressed with the students’ public speaking abilities, but also took away many new ideas about campus waste systems that they were eager to bring back to their campuses.

Many, many thanks to our absolute rock star teachers at Parras Middle School, Amy Beran and Clark Woods, who regularly sacrifice lunch periods to help monitor the school waste system, and also helped coordinate this workshop on their beautiful campus. They were on campus, along with the wonderful Green Team students, at 8am on a rainy Saturday morning, which just barely shows the amount of dedication they have to this program and the students. Another shoutout to Evan and all the other students in the Green Team and Kompost Kids, they really do exemplify the ideal group of students that any campus would be lucky to have.

I’d also like to thank all the Treeps that pitched in and helped make the day flow effortlessly. The one-and-only Loyda Ramos worked tirelessly trying to get teachers and students around LA County to attend the workshop, arranged all of the logistics such as booking the location, ordering catering, etc, and welcomed the guests as they arrived. Our guy with the eye Adam Thomas was on-site, snapping fantastic photos to help capture those moments in time, in the form of pictures. In addition, two of our awesome Eco-Tour Educators, Maria Adame and Cassie Roberts, also showed up raring and ready to help out with any task needed. The cooperation and determination of all these individuals helped make the day a great success.

The Recycling and Beyond Workshop is one of a series of three workshops offered under the Generation Earth program to middle and high school students and teachers in LA County designed to support their green efforts at school and in their communities. Other workshops include The WaterWise Campus which addressed campus and community water issues and NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) by Nature, which demonstrates how to use an outdoor classroom to teach an array of subjects and disciplines.

If anyone is interested in attending a future workshop or EE event please email me at kderieg@treepeople.org for more info.