An announcement from Evergreen Community Charter School:

Evergreen Community Charter School received a $25,000 grant from the Glass Foundation that will provide funding for the school’s TREE (Teaching and Resources for Environmental Education) Program. This program is a comprehensive strategy for strengthening the school’s role as a hub for effective environmental education and developing its students as the environmental leaders of tomorrow.

The Glass Foundation is a private family foundation based in Asheville, NC and was created in 2000 by Kenneth E. and Nancy J. Glass. The Foundation believes in helping the Western North Carolina region thrive as a whole community educationally, environmentally, and culturally and offer a distinctive quality of life.

The grant will assist with two of the school’s objectives - to deepen and expand Evergreen’s environmental education focus by creating an outdoor classroom and to build student self-confidence and skill in outdoor education activities by having a climbing wall on campus.

Evergreen students will participate in the design and construction of the outdoor classroom with assistance from community partners Asheville GO, WNC Green Building Council, A-B Tech, GIST (Global institute for Sustainability Technologies) Artisan Builders, Buncombe County Master Gardeners and architect Chuck Krekelberg who guided Evergreen through its Master Plan process.

Mike Fischesser , founder of Beanstock Journeys and former Program Director for North Carolina Outward Bound will consult with Evergreen on the design and construction of the climbing wall.

Evergreen Community Charter School is an Expeditionary Learning School that serves students in grades K through 8 and has a focus on environmental education, high academic standards, experiential and service learning. It was honored with the Exceptional Environmental Educational Center award by the Environmental Educators of North Carolina in 2010 and designated an Honor School of Excellence for two consecutive school years. For more information visit www.evergreenccs.org.