We Are Presenting GreenDay 2012,

  May 5th, in The Chinatown/Lower East Side/ Two Bridges area of Manhattan. 

This is going to be a fun and educational event for the whole family.

Our school , PS 126/Manhattan Academy of Technology's GreenTeam, has been building our knowledge by gardening, recycling, alternative technology experiments, starting a wind turbine team, doing green city designs,  finding community partners, and working on this idea for over a year. We are so excited ... can't wait to share this with the community and get everyone in on the learning and fun!!!

Be kind to the earth by bringing your electronics or unwanted clothing to recycle!  Not only will we be showing others what we learned, we will learn a lot from the great groups we have gathered to help teach. We will have a bunch of games (recycle relay race, tree identification....), walk to the East River(on our corner) to test the water and learn about our urban estuary, crafts, gardening including learning about hydroponics and composting), craft tables (to make a solar sundial watch, build a solar car, build wind turbines and pump water, measure electricity , and light a lightbulb), as well as for teens and adults to learn about Green Jobs and summer volunteer activities.

PLEASE HELP US TO MAKE THIS A REALLY GREAT EVENT AND FUN EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE FOR OUR COMMUNITY!!

And PLEASE come join Us on Saturday, May 5th from 11-5

in Alfred E. Smith Park, 80 Catherine Street, 1/2 block from the East River

Between Madison Street & the FDR Drive

This is our mission for GreenDay 2012:

To proudly display the accomplishments of our students and teachers , and for our children to share their knowledge and excitement with others;

To increase public awareness of daily practices that our urban dwellers can adapt to lessen their global footprint, as well as increase their own health.

To increase participation and stewardship of NYC greenspaces and waterways.

To educate & inform in a fun way;

To aim to reach our underserved & multilingual residents with translated materials, signage and events.

To allow partner and participating organizations to publicize their good works, and increase engagement in their organizations & events;

To inform and celebrate established City Green initiatives

To orient residents, parents, and students to Green/21^st century career paths;

To establish interest and create new leaders;

To engage the community in planning, outreach, and participation, and through this to hopefully make our community more active and cohesive;

To grow connections and leadership for building on-going green programs and practices in our community, (residences, schools, businesses)

find more partners and volunteers

publicize the event: make a flyer, postcards, a website, a facebook page

send info to partner, community, and other groups of interest/potential attendees organizations to forward to their lists and post on websites

Go to MFTA for canvas for banner & large material for signs

Find money: donations/sponsors/grants/IOBY

Buy workshop materials

notify parent coordinators at area schools

print & distribute flyers & postcards

post posters in all buildings & businesses nearby

place ads in paper (Downtown Express & Chinese media..etc )more? as possible

make signs: garden & tri-lingual signage workshop

buy volunteer food

set up event!!!

Celebrate Greenday 2012 on May 5th

We are in a very diverse community and we noticed that even in school and at events, parents couldn't even say hello to each other in their language. We also saw racist violence in the community. Since our school was beginning a garden, we thought that we could unite around the garden, and other green initiatives that the children were beginning to get involved with like recycling, energy conservation, and even exploring alternative technology and the East River. We thought our students could lead by example, and share their knowledge with the community. We also noticed that some parents were contributing unhealthy sugar drinks at school events, and calling it 'juice". We began to educate each other, but realized that this is a very broad problem within families themselves everywhere...so we added heathy eating to our agenda in our community

We were aware that there were partnering organizations involved with the school, and in our great city. We reached out to them for help. We found out that very little literature was available in Chinese, some was available in Spanish, the rest was all in English, The demographic of our area is in large part low income, so there was less communication about opportunities available to families for free,and therefore we decided that we would aim to fill this gap.

Taking stewardship of green urban areas, began with our garden , got attention of the area residents and those visiting the parks rec center, and living in the homeless shelter & is beginning to spread through NYCHA. We made all these our partners in this event.

We additionally knew that families, neighbors, and people in general throw out too much waste that others could use..that could get a new life and not go into landfills. This also includes the waste of good organic matter form the kitchens, that folks could use to enrich the soil. We will use the organizations that are expert in this to teach how we as urban dwellers can lessen our global footprint. Our kids started composting on a small scale, and we partnered with GrowNYC to do a community Stop and Swap. Folks loved this. We are now using them to help  do community textile recycling at GreenDay, and the Lower East Side Ecology Center will come to the event to do a great E-waste recycle, and will help our students do a community composting demonstration.

We have all learned so much working with each other, with these groups helping to partner in GreenDay, and pass on all the knowledge that we can. We are including elements in this event for people of all ages. And we have all made new friends...and will make more on GreenDay.

We are also hoping that non-English speaking families will find new friends and supports to become more engaged with their children's school. The children at PS 126/Manhattan Academy of Technology are learning great stuff, and we will learn from them.