DJ Omar Morsy combines his love for gardening and music for this first ever Bronx Music Garden event. With our majestic new community garden as a backdrop, the rhythms will pulse our Bronx students and neighbors as we plant, play and groove to DJ sets with an earth beat in mind and live performances by Never Yet Contested and Ane. If you've been lucky enough to attend any number of our events over the last few years you will have already delighted in the delicious garden to table offerings of Executive Chef Noah Sheetz. With as many sustainability students as we can muster, we'll show you what we do!
Tuesday, May 9 - Class visit from PS 125
Our awesome second grade supporters from PS 125 return to adore our garden and discover its wonders. This will be the third year that Behind the Book Executive Director and Founder Jo Umans has helped organize this trip of students from Harlem. We can once again hear the wonderful questions and witness the brilliant curiosity of these visiting youngsters.
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| These 2nd graders were no match for our excellent sustainability student big brothers and sisters two years ago when PS 125 first visited DeWitt Clinton High School. |
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| And if you're inviting 2nd graders into your garden it might be a good idea to have some worms on hand. |
Wednesday - Friday, May 17 - 19 - Third Annual Sustainability Expo
Students in my sustainability class as well as students from Ms. Vargas research class will present their sustainability and research projects in what has become an annual event at DeWitt Clinton High School.The work of sustainability teaching, as I see it at DeWitt Clinton High School, is to successfully organize a class full of students into different but related learning activities (committees) in order to launch multiple sustainability initiatives in garden planning, garden expansion and community input for the design of the James Baldwin Memorial Outdoor Learning Center and Trail, paper recycling, plastic recycling, composting, seed collection, cafeteria recycling, food waste recovery, climate change education, etc. Our school community gets to witness the results at the Expo and we are planning for plenty of surprises!
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| One of the surprises of last year's Sustainability Expo was being recognized as Eco Heroes by internationally renowned Environmental Economist-media producer-television host-author-artist, Pamela Peeters. |
Monday, May 22 - DOE Sustainability Showcase
Chancellor Fariña will be helping to celebrate school efforts, actions, innovations and dedication to sustainability and leadership at this event to be held at UFT Headquarters, 52 Broadway, New York, NY. We look forward to exhibiting at the event.
Tuesday, June 6 - Community Fruit Tree Planting
We have been awarded 25 fruit trees to start a sizeable orchard in the area of the community garden on the Goulden Avenue side of our building.
"The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (FTPF) is an award-winning international nonprofit charity dedicated to planting fruitful trees and plants to alleviate world hunger, combat climate change, strengthen communities, and improve the surrounding air, soil, and water." FTPF has chosen DeWitt Clinton High School to launch the organization's 2017 United States campaign and is one of 20 sites across the country to receive an orchard. Save the date for now, but details and information on how you can get involved will be announced soon. For more information about The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation go to http://www.ftpf.org/index.php
Thursday, June 8 - Day of Service and Dedication Ceremony in memory of Megan Charlop
The Montefiore School Health Program will hold its 7th annual Day of Service in honor of Megan Charlop. The annual event is a memorial to Megan's tireless advocacy for building a stronger community, helping improve the lives of Bronx children and encouraging healthy lifestyles. This year we are proud to announce that we will be naming our new community garden in honor and memory of our friend, Megan Charlop, who was a major influence on starting our own award-winning school garden, The Clinton Garden.
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| Last year's Day of Service marked the largest number of community service volunteers that ever assembled at one time to help in the garden. This year we should easily surpass the 21 volunteers from last year, but whose counting? (photo Ahna Pultinas) |
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| Meghan Charlop, former Director of Community Health for Montefiore School Health Program, died tragically on March 17, 2010 in an accident while biking to work. Her untimely death left colleagues and friends charged with continuing her work improving the health of Bronx communities. (photo: Ray Pultinas, some text from Montefiore Update, June 8, 2015.) |
And Finally, What You Probably Didn't Know About
Our school building still exists, believe it or not, behind walls of scaffolding and while our beloved Clinton Garden may, for the time being, be under wraps, we are fortunate to be able to enact the spirit and momentum of sustainability at our new community garden. This past school year, we are grateful for the assistance of Deborah Carlin from Gotham Grazers and Earth Day Initiative who has helped us plan sustainable food curriculum and organize garden events like our first community work day on April 14. Our next community volunteer work day organized by Deborah will be held on May 23.
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| Guggenheim Project Volunteers wore the purple at our first volunteer work day, April 14, 2017. (photo: Deborah Carlin) |
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| Past, Present and Future Environmental Affairs Club alumni from left Clarissa Reclaimer, Danny Acosta, Ray Pultinas (advisor), Yelissa Vasquez and present DeWitt Clinton student and EAC member Redwan Galal. (photo: Deborah Carlin) |
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| It was a gorgeous Spring Day to work among the daffodils! (photo: Deborah Carlin) |
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