Summer Opportunities and our final meeting of the year

There are many opportunities in the summertime to spend your days outdoors with nature, including camping, hiking, swimming at lakes, etc. But you can also find workshops, classes and activities in the area related to the environment and nature by following the newspaper calendars and looking online.

I found a few opportunities that might be interesting to club members. The first is one that I've recommended before: taking advantage of the classes Eric Nicholas, Pleasanton City Naturalist, teaches at the Alviso Adobe Community Park off Foothill Road (see Volunteering at the Alviso Adobe for more information about the park where Eric Nicholas works). You can browse through the classes he's offering here and register for them online here, send in a registration form (located within the activities guide), or visit the Parks and Community Services Department downtown to sign up in person. My sister at one of Eric Nicholas's classes about Native American tools. She is carving her own design into sandstone. The bowl has crushed berries with olive oil, to be used as paint.

Another opportunity I came across is through Las Positas College Community Education. You may have received their summer course brochure in the mail, but if not you can view it online here. The class that I found particularly interesting is one entitled Eco-Living For Teens. Here is the course description:

Overview of current environmental challenges and sustainability principles as related to modern day living. Learn how to calculate and reduce your personal carbon footprint and examine how regular, day-to-day actions and choices affect the larger community and planet. Tips and resources that will help you make an impact in your own life and community and de-mystify the "great green hype." Students will be asked to calculate their current ecological footprint and bring the results to class. Survey takes less than 10 minutes. Please contact the office for survey address when you have registered for the class.

Thursday, 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
1 session on August 5, 2010
Tuition: $39.00
Instructor: Turner (not our Mrs. Turner)
Location: Las Positas College

It is a little expensive, but it looks like a neat opportunity to learn more about environmental living.

Hopefully you find these and other opportunities worth-while this summer. If you come across any other interesting opportunites, please email our club so we can forward them along to everyone (avhsenvironmental@yahoo.com).

---

We had our last Environmental Club meeting of the 2009-2010 school year on Wednesday, June 2. It was my last Environmental Club meeting at Amador ever (see my mention of it in this recent blog post), and I'm sad that I will no longer be an officer of this wonderful, inspirational club. However, I'm excited for someone else to fill my role as secretary/publicist and for Liana and Patricia to continue to do excellent work for the environment and for Amador's environmental consciousness. I've enjoyed every minute working with the club, and I wish you all the best of luck in your lives as students, environmental activists, friends, and awesome people. I will try to visit you guys before I go to UC Santa Cruz in September, and I will definitely come to any events you have next year. I'll stay on your email list and Facebook page, so my presence will not completely disappear, and I'll update Liana and Patricia on any cool environmental things I'm doing next year, as well as pass along new green tips I learn. Thank you all for helping make my senior year an awesome, fulfilling experience!

Here are some pictures from our last meeting. Patricia had us play a fun game where we drew nature scenes on paper that was on top of our heads. Very funny!

Everyone drawing pictures on their heads!

The best drawing

Club member Taylor with her drawing

Taylor with her organic Amy's lunch.

Happy Almost-Summer!

Melissa
Green Gal

Meeting Recap & Requests February 26, 2010

Thank you everyone who attended today's meeting--it was such a success! We are so glad you've all decided to join Environmental Club and it's inspiring to see so many new faces and so much enthusiasm! You all make our club what it is and what it has the potential to be--you guys rock!

Quick links:
- Meeting agenda with notes from today's meeting (February 26, 2010)
- List of local Earth Week events
- DOT ideas/ Ways you can easily change the world document

Please email us which focus group you were in so we can update our list. Also, please send us a brief explanation/some notes of what your group discussed and brainstormed. We want to create a list of goals/ideas for each focus group.

If you couldn't attend today's meeting, please let us know which focus group you think you'd find most interesting:
- Solar panels/energy
- Food scrapping (our ACE grant that we're applying for would go toward food scrapping)
- Beautification/flowers/gardening at Amador
- Teacher/classroom encouragement of green habits

If you'd like, it'd be AWESOME if you guys researched environmental things that interest you between now and our next meeting on March 12. If you find interesting facts, stories or tips, write them down. We will save some time at our next meeting for people to share what they learned.

Rather than break into focus groups every meeting, we may have meetings where we focus on one thing. For example, maybe at our next meeting we'll have a club discussion on food scrapping or solar power. We will let you know ahead of time so you can do some research if you want so our discussion will have some facts, etc.

Around March 10, we'll send you a meeting agenda so you will know what we'll be doing at the meeting. You're always welcome to send us suggestions for meeting topics or any interesting facts/articles, etc. that you want us to pass along to the club.

Again, thank you everyone!
See you March 12 for sure and hopefully around school :)

Melissa
AVHS Environmental Club secretary

---

Inspiring Nature Thought for the Day...

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more.
-- Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

Valentine's Day recycled-card-making

At our most recent Environmental Club meeting on Friday, February 12, we made recycled Valentine's Day cards using reusable materials. Here are some pictures of us making them:

For some Valentine's Day card material ideas, see our previous posts on the subject: Part 1 & Part 2. Hope you had a lovely Valentine's Day!