Earth Day at Evergreen builds community through service

Press Release

From Evergreen Community Charter School

Asheville – Students at Evergreen Community Charter School participated in Earth Day Evergreen: Building Community through Learning & Service event on Monday, April 21. The day began with a whole school collaborative Earth Day poem and the raising of Earth Day flags, an art installation inspired by a partnership between Evergreen’s art and environmental education teachers.

Teachers, parents, grandparents and community members came together and helped implement an extensive variety of service projects on Evergreen’s campus. Tasks included litter pick up and replacing spouts on rain barrels, planting over 1000 tulip bulbs, laying footing for a new wood-drying shed, building new steps and signage for the EL Nature Trail, building and installing new bird houses, conducting a bird species count, creating a bird habitat garden and enhancing diversity by planting nine new native species through forest surrounding the school.

When students weren’t doing service projects they were able to attend a variety of environmental education programs conducted by Wings to SOAR, Steve O’Neil’s Wildlife Warriors, RiverLink and Asheville Greenworks.

The day ended with a community picnic provided by Evergreen seventh-graders with a Global Foods Tasting Table and a display by an artisan bread baker teaching about wheat fermentation, yeast and how to use a wood-fired oven.

Evergreen Community Charter School is a public charter school serving students in grades K through eight. Its curriculum focus is environmental education, high academic standards, experiential and service learning. Evergreen is an Expeditionary Learning (EL) School and was selected to be a national Mentor School in 2013. Two Evergreen teachers in 2010 and 2014 earned the distinction of North Carolina Charter School Teacher of the Year. For more information on Evergreen Community Charter School, visit evergreenccs.org