Contact: Jenni Brockman
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Local Girls Plan 'GUTSE' Earth Day Activities
This year's Earth Day celebration promises to be the biggest yet, as the event celebrates its 30th anniversary. Tens of millions of people from every hemisphere of the globe have a long list of activities planned.
This month, St. Margaret's students will participate in GUTSE, 'Girls United to Save the Environment,' the annual Earth Day celebration sponsored by the National Coalition of Girls' Schools, of which St. Margaret's School is a member.
SMS Earth Day Chapel participants - (l. to r.) Katherine Price, Rachelle Slotnick, Sarah Taliaferro, Mary Burke Parker, and Ann Kramer Osburn.
In fact St. Margaret's students have already geared up for the big event, as students held a special Earth Day chapel service on April 12. Kym Register, president of St. Margaret's environmental club, was instrumental in planning and organizing the school's Earth Day chapel; earlier this year she initiated a campus-wide recycling effort. Kym, a native of Carborro, NC, will travel home for "Green Fest," an Earth Day event celebrated near her home in Chapel Hill. "We sang earth day songs, like hymns having to do with preserving our natural recources and beauty and read several facts about the earth during chapel. We had tremendous participation and it was great to see how many people cared enough to inform the school about how the earth's natural resources are depleting faster than we can regenerate them," said Register. "Oh, we closed with 'Rise And Shine,' which was really fun."
"Not only are our girls caring for the Earth, they are also reaping many, many educational rewards by studying the environment," said Margaret R. Broad, headmistress. "Done right, environmental science is an interdisciplinary field, demanding skills in math and all the sciences, talent for research, and the ability to communicate findings clearly. It truly is a spring-board to achievement in all school subjects."
This year, St. Margaret's students will study marine science issues in Andrea Robinson's advanced biology class and Milly Moncure's environmental science students will debate the effects of overpopulation as it relates to the environment. Moreover, St. Margaret's ecology teacher and environmental club sponsor, Mollie Conklin, plans to talk about the relationship between matter and energy. She will encourage her students to consider the "big picture" result of their daily actions and its cumulative effect on the environment. Sophomore, Olivia Dix, of Dallas, Texas, says she will pick up "at least one" soda can or piece of trash on Earth Day. "I routinely pick up litter and bits of paper around campus but for Earth Day I will be sure to pick up a few extra pieces - and think about the environment while throwing it away."
"Tree huggers" Ellen Totten (l.) and Olivia Dix plan to have fun this Earth Day while thinking about how to be more responsible with regard to the enviroment.
"Environmental literacy is proving to be an essential skill for all citizens," said Mrs. Conklin. "We live in a world of increasingly complex scientific understandings, where sound decisions require a broad base of skills. GUTSE ties a whole range of classroom lessons together, in a way that really lets our girls go out and get their hands dirty and get involved."
The NCGS, based in Concord, Massachusetts, sponsors GUTSE as a way to encourage girls to develop excitement about learning, a roll-up-your-sleeves attitude, community service, and leadership skills -- attributes very much prized at girls' schools.
"We live an era when heightened awareness about protecting the environment permeates many aspects of everyday life," said Whitney Ransome and Meg Moulton, the NCGS's Executive Directors. "There are many ways to make a difference, whether volunteering on a clean-up project, educating others about recycling or conservation - even wielding the power of the purse to save the earth through environmentally-conscious purchasing, investment, and giving."
