Ecology club for children reaps garden show prize

ORONO – The After School Environmental Club, which offers nature and ecology investigations for children in grades kindergarten through eight from the Old Town-Orono area, has won first prize for its project display at the Bangor Garden Show.

Keeping with the show theme “Recycling in the Garden,” club members lined cast-off shoes and boots with recycled plastic grocery bags, filled them with soil and planted an array of flower and vegetable seeds.

The result is a collection of footwear bursting with greenery, according to club co-leader Mary Bird. The children also created plant pots from recycled cans, jars, and plastic containers, and made terrariums of 2-liter soda bottles. The project was funded by the River Coalition, a private funding agency that supports programs for children and adults and serves Old Town, Milford, Bradley, Alton, Greenbush and Indian Island.

The club is a collaborative program of the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development, Stillwater Montessori School, Friends of Dr. Edith Marion Patch, and Page Farm and Home Museum.

The club brings 25 to 30 children together twice a month to conduct field investigations and indoor projects related to Maine’s environment. Meetings are held at Page Farm and Home Museum on the UMaine campus and usually move outdoors to investigate the woods, wetlands, fields and gardens nearby. The club is staffed by faculty from the college and Stillwater Montessori School, as well as by education students and parent volunteers.

It is hoped that in future years additional funding will enable the club to expand to other sites and serve a larger population from a broader geographic area, Bird said.

For information about the After School Environmental Club, call Mary Bird at the UM College of Education and Human Development at 581-2434, or Joanne Alex, Stillwater Montessori School, 827-2404.