Children made flower bursts while their parents learned about how to improve air quality at a "Growing Green Kids" family night on Earth Day, April 22.
A joint venture of the Center for the Environment at Catawba College and Town Creek Commons Chick-Fil-A, the event site, the festivities drew children from age 2 to their teens. "A girls' soccer team from Iredell County came as they were on their way to East Rowan," says Sarah Moore, outreach coordinator for the Center.
Several people came expressly because they learned about the event on the Center's or Chick-fil-A's Facebook pages.
The children combined clay, peat moss and a mixture of annual wildflower seeds into flower bursts, which they took home. "The next time it rains, they can throw them out wherever they want wildflowers to grow," Moore says.
The students received prizes of Chick-fil-A foods or stuffed cows when they correctly answered questions on air quality. "Even those who didn't answer correctly got a consolation prize," Moore says, "a Magic School Bus book which tells about how the bus gets cleaned up so it's not producing pollution."
A display board provided by Center's Campaign for Clean Air featured facts about air quality in Rowan and Cabarrus counties and showed parents ways to improve the air. Students from Catawba's Green Education Outreach (GEO) team helped out at the event.
The Center for the Environment at Catawba College was founded in 1996 to provide education and outreach centered on prevalent environmental challenges and to foster community-oriented sustainable solutions that can serve as a model for programs throughout the country. For more information, visit www.CenterForTheEnvironment.org or www.CampaignForCleanAir.org.
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