By Ray Pultinas (with Alejandra
Garcia, Bintou Jalebi, Hannah Kimerling and Amonique Perry)
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| Awesome Garden Extension Project started with the help of Grow to Learn's Che'Von Cooper and completed by the fabulous students in our 9th period Sustainability class! From left to right, Alejandra Garcia, Maria Rodriguez, Amanda Tillie, Adamma Ogbennaya and Amonique Perry (All photos by Ray Pultinas). |
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Dewitt
Clinton’s Sustainability classes, led by Sustainability Coordinator and English
teacher Ray Pultinas, have been undertaking the task of improving the school
grounds, local environment and the flourishing Clinton Garden. Now in its second year, the main focus of this
class is for students to get a better understanding of the Earth and how to
help the environment. The students in Sustainability are perhaps the most
active on campus and already this year have participated in National Kale Day,
built and tested solar ovens, planted hundreds of daffodil bulbs, celebrated
the fall harvest with a Native Taino Ceremony, held a Fall Harvest Sale,
toured the watersheds of Van Courtlandt Park, helped remove invasive plants from the banks of the Bronx River, toured the Farmer's Market at Poe Park, and built three hoop houses to extend the growing season in The Clinton Garden.
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| What would National Kale Day be without a Kale Dinosaur who loves Dinosaur Kale? (here played by Zoraida Dejesus.) |
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| Kale Goddess Dania De Leon and National Kale Day Co-Founder, Dr. Drew Ramsey.
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| And on the mike, the indomitable Joshua Vega preaching the gospel of Kale! |
Who doesn’t
love kale? If there were any doubts of our
school’s response to this question, they were dispelled as DeWitt Clinton found
itself at the forefront of the celebration of National Kale Day on October
7. The founder of National Kale Day, Dr.
Drew Ramsey, who arrived on the scene in the student cafeteria, witnessed a kale celebration
in all its glory. Garden to Café
Coordinator George Edwards, and Wellness in the School’s Ellen Emerson along
with Sustainability students were sharing kale chips and other delicacies
prepared for the event against a backdrop of colorful student made posters. Students took the open mike to share poems
and stories they had written in praise of kale and there was a Kale Dinosaur
(named after Dinosaur Kale) parading around the cafeteria. Bintou Jalebi exclaimed, “It was so epic and
funny, we got to present funny posters, poems and raps about kale!”
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| The best designs had the best results! |
On October
8, Sustainability students began building solar ovens in class workshops led by
Mike Zamm, Director of the Environmental Education Program at Grow NYC. Mr. Zamm then took students out to test their
ovens on a chilly late October morning.
Despite the temperature, students were still able to melt at least the
chocolate on their smores and sample the results.
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| Sustainability students spent at least 10 hours planting 1,100 daffodil bulbs that will grace our beautiful campus this coming spring! |
When it
comes to adding beauty to our school grounds, some of the things that
Sustainability students do require a bit of patience. For instance, after receiving a donation of
over 1000 daffodil bulbs from New Yorkers for Parks and the Daffodil Project
students set to work on planting bulbs
that will only emerge next Spring.
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Roman Guaraguaorix (Redhawk) Perez officiating at a ceremony that honored all who have helped The Clinton Garden.
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| Students, parents, teachers and community members gathered on the site of the future Clinton Orchard to give thanks for past and future abundance. |
Perhaps the
most unique and powerful activity in Sustainability this fall happened on the
first day of our Harvest Week Celebration on October 27, a Native American
Harvest Ceremony led by Roman Guaraguaorix
(Redhawk) Perez, Kacike (chief) for Maisiti Yukayeke Taino; a tribe of the
Taino Nation. Chief Redhawk led an
enthusiastic group of about 40 students, parents, faculty and community members
in a variety of Taino and Native American rituals to both thank the earth for
its abundant harvest as well as bless the spot on the West lawn of our campus
that will be the site of our fruit orchard.
Students in particular enjoyed participating in a “snake dance” that
ended up in the formation of a community circle. There was chanting, drumming, a purification
ritual and storytelling. The ceremony
ended in a celebration of the birthday of Milton Roman, who assists in the
Clinton Library. At least five students
present were able to claim Native ancestry and for them the ceremony was
especially significant as it seems a rare event to take place in public high
schools. Sustainability student Mirza
Baig put it this way, “the funnest part was when I put the tobacco in the fire, it felt
cool!”
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| John Butler of Friends of Van Cortlandt Park led a tour of the Tibbett's Brook Watershed and explained plans to daylight the brook that presently empties into the New York City sewer system wasting millions of dollars each year. |
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| Sustainability class in the field, from left, John Butler (Friends of Van Cortlandt Park, Izabella Muratovic, TJ Silver, Zoraida DeJesus, Santia Gonzalez-Cancel, Jack Gambino, Jessica Davila, Jasmely Torres, Mike Zamm, Ariana Thompson, Ansil Stephen, Milton Roman, Ray Pultinas. |
Our Annual Harvest Sale
this year took place during the last week of October and we raised nearly $300 for The Clinton Garden and
the Environmental Affairs Club by selling local and organic fruits and
vegetables including peppers, basil and kale from our own Clinton Garden. On Thursday, October 29, sustainability
students were led on a hike to see Tibbets Brook as it flows into and out of
Van Cortlandt Lake. Trails Project
Manager John Butler and Director of Programs Sara Kempton both of Friends of
Van Cortlandt Park led the trip and explained a proposed project to daylight a
large section of Tibbets Brook that has been channeled underground for many
years that will result in a new Bronx greenbelt in New York City.
Mike Zamm,
who has been educating DeWitt Clinton students on the environment for over 30
years calls our school’s Sustainability program one of the most comprehensive
in all of New York City. On any given
day this fall you might see students starting seedlings for a season extension
experiment, or sewing winter cover crops on some of the twenty raised beds in
The Clinton Garden or composting food scraps mixed with fallen oak leaves. Mr. Zamm is being honored as Friend of the Month by the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park but in reality Mr. Zamm has become a Friend for Life for his tireless contributions to environmental programming at DeWitt Clinton High School.
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| Mike Zamm, second from left, along with Bronx River Alliance and Sustainability students from DeWitt Clinton near the scene of intense invasive removal. |
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| The small team of Sustainability students from left Alejandra Garcia, Bintou Jabbi and Juan Saavedra Vidals cleared an immense zone of Japanese Knotweed from the banks of the Bronx River! |
On November 9, Mr. Zamm led a small contingent of Sustainability students to assist the Bronx River Alliance by
removing Japanese Knotweed, an invasive species that threatens the biodiversity of our local
watershed. Our final field trip of the year brought us to Poe Park where we met the farmers and sampled foods prepared at GrowNYC's Farmer’s Market.
As
Sustainability student Theodore Brailsford remarks, “so far I believe we have
made an even bigger scene this year than we had last year” and “I am very proud
when I hear random people talk about Sustainability, which rarely happened last
year.” As Sustainability student
Amonique Perry tells it, “this class helps me to improve my leadership skills,
collaborate with team members and be responsible.” As anybody concerned about the future of our
Earth will tell you, we need leadership on issues of the environment precisely
because we are responsible for the planet that we all need to live on.
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| Fall sunset on The Clinton Garden: the greenhouse is replaced by three new beds increasing our number of raised beds to 17. |
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| The three new beds will be growing winter greens into the winter! |
Please share your comments
14 comments:
The Native Fire Ceremony was really fun. I think it was one of my favorite activities that I did in the fall, with the Sustainability class. I got to help tie up some this, then I got to throw it in the fire. There were four of us that helped with that. We stood for North, West, East and South. After learning a few new things, we learned a a song, in the their language while we matched around the garden. To wrap the ceremony up we were all sprayed with smoke, that smelled really good by the way. Then everyone did the snake dance while never letting go of the person in front of us. It was a really enjoyable day. I wouldn't mind doing other things like this.
Like Adamma said above, my favorite fall activity in Sustainability was the ceremony in which Chief Redhawk attended. Even though my throat was sore that day to the point that I could not speak, I had a lot of fun. We make wishes with sage in our hands, and we threw the sage into the fire. We then were allowed to breath in the smoke in which he burned some type of herb. We then learned a song in his native language. As we learned it, we danced around in a snake like motion, while we held on to the person in front of us. As I remember, we marched to the garden and back. We then had smoke blown in our face. As a person with Native American roots, I really enjoyed getting to learn about my culture (not necessarily Chief Redhawk's tribe, but just Native American culture as a whole). I really would like if we did this activity more often.
Hey! , it’s Amanda Tillie one of the many humanitarians that is active in the Clinton Garden. This is the second year that I have participated in the sustainability course and this fall is by far the biggest! We have had the founder of National Kale Day (Dr. Drew Ramsay) come to our school to see our garden and our event to support his special holiday. Think of it a sustainable HERO coming to our school out of millions in America. We also had our Harvest Sale where we made roughly $200, not only did we raise money we also made more people in our school aware of just how much we’ve accomplished. However many people never lived the legendary experience of the Clinton Garden.
In our on going Harvest week we also had a Taino (Redhawk) come to our school to setup a bonfire. I know you’re probably thinking “WHOA BONFIRE + kids you are definitely asking for trouble!” Actually I hate to break it to you but, you are wrong. One of our very own native members was honored with the job of tending to the fire, it went well if you ignored the fact that as his first attempt to keep the fire going he fanned it a lot and made smoke go everywhere. This event was my personal favorite because I am ½ Mayan native and ½ Cherokee native and I am currently learning much more about my general native culture ; so you would not be surprised that I immediately volunteered to wrap the Three Sisters ( Beans, Squash and Corn) in a dried corn husk and toss it in the fire as a Thank You for Mother Earth.
I know who ever is reading this is most likely thinking this is a pretty long comment and I should just start my own blog, I personally agree; but hang in there I am almost finished. The EAC club has accomplished in our bulb planting and we also had a Garden to Café event. In our bulb planting we planted about 1,100 daffodil bulbs it was fun to gain new knowledge of planting flowers because I have never heard of flowers growing out of bulbs that look like garlic. The results of this project is still pending because the daffodils will sprout in the spring. Our Garden to Café event was as it says plainly in the name is when food from the garden is made into a tasty and healthy snack for lunch. We also have accomplished in making smores in our DIY solar ovens. It was really cool, it is something I would try at home to show my family. Did I mention it was delicious? surprisingly my chocolate melted, I mean what is better than chocolate and marshmallows? Lastly we have finished building three new beds of soil in our garden and we made three new green houses. I enjoyed that activity because when we were finished placing the plastic above the beds I had the chance to poke my head inside of the greenhouse and it was beautiful. I never thought I’d say this but, I think brown and green colors coordinate very well.
I must say, taking this class has really opened my eyes to the ways we treat our environment. At first, I'll admit I did not pay much attention to the idea of recycling and conserving food but now I know so much better. Learning from Mr. Pultinas about how important sustainability is really put things into perspective for me. I enjoyed the documentations we've watched,the visitors that taught so informational lessons with us and the activities we've had.
It's Amonique and this is my first year working with the Environmental Affairs Crew and contributing to the environment. I grew up in Jamaica so plants were my natural source for food in my country. Being apart of the Sustainability has given me an opportunity to discuss plans to publicize the hard work that we're trying to accomplish with all the effort we put into the environment. In working with this amazing group of people we are learning together and having fun together. National Kale Day was one of the first activities I had done since I joined the class and the year had just started so some of us were nervous to stand in front of everyone in the cafeteria and offer them food and speak to them about Kale. I have a lot of fun because I was learning and enjoying myself at the same time. Harvest Day was another opportunity where we advertise the garden by selling our produce to th school and the community. I just hope in the future that the garden has expanded so much that we can just sell our produce only without having to buy from other places. But in order to do that the garden needs growth and us we that we can preserve it. We also had a Taino ceremony that had traditional Native American culture and expressed the importance of Mother Nature to us all. The whole crew took this pretty seriously and I was taking to Juan about how amazing it all was and hearing Chief Redbawk speak his language and not hide his traditions help to build my strength and hopes for the garden. Nature is an unstoppable force and we need helps it's growth not hinder it. Let's make the garden hard to ignore Mr. Pultinas I'm all for it.
It's Amonique and this is my first year working with the Environmental Affairs Crew and contributing to the environment. I grew up in Jamaica so plants were my natural source for food in my country. Being apart of the Sustainability has given me an opportunity to discuss plans to publicize the hard work that we're trying to accomplish with all the effort we put into the environment. In working with this amazing group of people we are learning together and having fun together. National Kale Day was one of the first activities I had done since I joined the class and the year had just started so some of us were nervous to stand in front of everyone in the cafeteria and offer them food and speak to them about Kale. I have a lot of fun because I was learning and enjoying myself at the same time. Harvest Day was another opportunity where we advertise the garden by selling our produce to th school and the community. I just hope in the future that the garden has expanded so much that we can just sell our produce only without having to buy from other places. But in order to do that the garden needs growth and us we that we can preserve it. We also had a Taino ceremony that had traditional Native American culture and expressed the importance of Mother Nature to us all. The whole crew took this pretty seriously and I was taking to Juan about how amazing it all was and hearing Chief Redbawk speak his language and not hide his traditions help to build my strength and hopes for the garden. Nature is an unstoppable force and we need helps it's growth not hinder it. Let's make the garden hard to ignore Mr. Pultinas I'm all for it.
Andrew Persaud....
I remember participating in the solar power oven. At first I did not think nor expect it to work. Especially since we didn't have enough time, but I was surprised. As we put the solar ovens to work on that sunny Friday morning I saw a lot of progress. That project was really fun and hope we could do more projects next semester !!
It's Zoraida DeJesus (no clue why name says SheWulfGoddess; old email -_-') and I've been with the Environmental Affairs Club since last year, I've always enjoyed what we would do for the environment. I enjoy learning about new and different plant species and learning how to play small crops like tomatoes, lettuce, and kale! I have been enjoying the activities so far this year and I especially loved National Kale Day! I really liked how we had different samples of recipes of kale, the posters we had up, and the short stories and poems people wrote to be shared during lunch. In addition, I also enjoyed my role as the Kale Dinosaur during this fun event!! I was ESPECIALLY happy to see Mr. Pultinas happy because he deserved to be happy. He has done so much for this school's garden and the school itself to try and make it sustainable. He's been trying for many, many years so it warmed my heart to see him so happy and full of energy on National Kale Day. As an activity we can take on I think we can try for our next harvest sale to water that we would filter our safe from filter's we made ourselves (like rain water) and sell or something. I'm not fully sure if it is COMPLETELY safe to do, but hey it's just an idea! I can't wait to see what the rest of the year has in store for me and I hope it get's even better!
National Kale Day was a fun experience that I was lucky enough to participate in. For the event I created a poster in which I illustrated the benefits of kale. The students enjoyed the day and the kale snacks afforded throughout the day in the lunchroom. The co-founder of National Kale Day Dr.Ramsey was kind enough to come be apart of the event. Kale was I plant that I was not aware of until I came across it in this sustainability class with Mr.Pultinas. I was not very welcoming to the plant at first but I later learned all the great nutrients it offers, now I see why it deserves it's own day. That day like I many other students saw the benefits of kale and gave it a try. This was the first activity I participated in sustainability class so naturally I was a little hesitant but now I see why it is worth it. I learned a lot that day I learned how beneficial kale is and why this class is needed. I have learned a lot about nature this year and how we should protect it.
Hey this is Amaya Batista from the 9th period advisory class and so far I've learned a lot in the 3 months that I've been in sustainability. We've participated in many activities, but the one that is unforgettable is when we did the bulb planting in our school's garden. My grandma loves plants and planting things and I never really understood until I was able to do it myself. It was an amazing experience and I learned a lot from it. For starters I learned what a bulb is, a bulb is very similar to seeds except it's surrounded by thicker layers so that it can be protected during the winter weather and then later in the year it will grow into daffodils because that's the type of bulbs we planted. I also found out that we are supposed to plant the bulbs in rows and when we are digging the hole has to be twice the size of the bulb. In each hole we were told to plant at least two bulbs but if the hole was bigger we could plant up to 5 bulbs. I didn't only learn about bulbs, I also learned about the garden and why it's an important factor to a community. Gardens are important because we are able to plant a variety of fruits and vegetables and then we can educate people on the importance of healthy food. Overall this was an educational but fun experience and I can't wait to see the flowers bloom in the near future.
Saaima Nanabawa
One activity that I participated during the fall term was the daffodil bulb planting. Since I joined sustainability later than most of my fellow classmates, I haven't participated as much as they have. However, my favorite activity was the bulb planting because of its experience. Along with my colleagues our mission was to plant the 1,000 daffodil bulbs that were donated to DWC high school. I learned how to plant flowers, and was amused by the seed of the flower which was a garlic looking seed. We were taught to dig a hole in the ground using the appropriate tools/attire and depending on how big or small the hole was, we would fill it with the appropriate number of bulbs. After that, the soil that was dug up was used to cover the bulbs, and these bulbs will hopefully be watered, and make DWC campus shine. This activity was fun and I enjoyed it the most and look forward to the blooming of this daffodils in the future. Our ability to use nature to our advantage as a sustainability class will continue in the future and give Dewitt Clintons community a better appearance.
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