Day of Service: Where is your project?

Welcome to the first annual Day of Service! On Saturday, Sept. 29, children will be leading the way to a better learning environment in our schools. They’re backed up by parents and teachers who are all working hand-in-hand to stress that Where We Learn Matters.

The concept is a simple one. Ask students and parents to look around their school and find a green project that needs to be done. It could be an edible garden, a schoolyard cleanup or decorated recycle bins. These simple projects are designed to remind school administrators, local officials and community leaders that healthy sustainable schools are important to our children and the community.

The Center for Green Schools is the organizing force behind this largely grass-roots effort. But the emphasis here is not on water efficiency or energy envelopes. The point of Sept. 29 is to wake us all up a little to where children are learning and remind us how much it matters.

Check out the Center’s site for service, Green Apple. Scroll down the home page to do a search for events in your area. Almost 10 percent of all schools in the U.S. have an event, so chances are you’ll have an opportunity to green up a location right in your area.

Be sure to bring a green apple! Take a pic of your child at your project site with the apple and post it to the Green Apple site. There it will join other pictures from across the globe. The projects and sites are very different, but these children all have the same goal: to remind us that Where We Learn Matters.