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Earth Day All Day, Every Day!

Without contributing to the often politicized nature of issues environmental, I think we can all comfortably agree that learning to respect and appreciate the limited resources of our planet; to be conscious of our need to conserve, and in certain cases protect these resources is something we can all agree on. Earth Day has a special meaning at Saint David's and a long history of celebration. We were one of the first schools involved in the first NYC Earth Day in 1970.

This morning, Saint David's Chamber Singers under Phyllis C's direction, assembled on the sidewalk to welcome everyone to school in song. The boys' performance, enjoyed by the hundreds spread across our 89th Street sidewalk included: Kum Ba Chur Atzeyl, a Hebrew folk song about waking up, Now I Walk in Beauty (Text Navajo; music G. Smith), Old Brown Earth (words and music Pete Seeger), I Thank You, God (text E. E. Cummings, music E. E. Levine), This We Know (Text Chief Seattle; music R. Jeffers), Music is God’s Greatest Gift (various composers; melody in Latin, Spanish and English).

The Environmental Awareness and Action Committee is an active and engaged group of interested and concerned faculty, staff and parents. Formed a few years ago and chaired by Jenna B. and Jeremy O'G., the group is responsible for raising awareness of things environmental at Saint David's. They are doing an incredible job. Their accomplishments have been notable. Two of their videos follow. The first was produced for the faculty and staff last year to promote the EAAC campaign aimed at reducing paper consumption. We did by 10%--probably because of this video; and the second promotes this year's aim to reduce paper cup consumption. Prepare yourself:


Today also saw the conclusion to the Green Cup Challenge and the Green Champions/Green Heroes programs, three additional initiatives sponsored by the EAAC that ran from January 11 through March 5. We achieved 100% participation on the part of Saint David's 403 boys in all these programs. During lunches today, awards were distributed celebrating the achievements of class 8 Pi who won 5th place with 124 activities; 3 Pi and 4 Pi who won 4th with 125; 5 Pi, achieved third with 129; 6 Theta won second place with 131; and 3 Chi won the prestigious Gold Cup with 132 energy saving activities.

We also concluded our Energy Saving Competition with the girls of Nightingale. Comparisons of total kilowatt hours used in buildings 12-14 in February ’09 were made to usage in February ‘10 and a corresponding equivalent square footage at Nightingale for the same period. Saint David's achieved a reduction of 1% compared to Nightingale's .09%. reduction. Saint David's won, just, making us Green Kings ... for now at least. The total combined reduction in usage amounted to well over 1400 kw/hrs between the two schools. A very special thanks to the girls of Nightingale. See slide show below shown to the boys during lunch today.

Other Earth Day activities included a Green Lunch featuring all locally grown produce and no ovens, and a Parents Association initiative to collect and recycle cell phones for Haiti.

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