What has Green Our Planet Been Up To In February 2022?

Green Our Planet has been up to a lot in the past month! We have been working hard on new projects and expanding our reach to new communities. In this newsletter, we will share some of what we have been up to in February and a little bit of January. From launching our Spring 2022 Hydroponics Cohort to planning a Giant Student Farmers Market, we have been busy planting and nurturing seeds to green our planet!

Arguably the most exciting news we have to share is that the Green Our Planet Virtual Academy is now an award-winning platform! An adapted version of our video lesson, “What is Renewable and Nonrenewable Energy?” received the Bronze Award for Best Strategy: Sustainability, Environment, & Climate, Awareness Category in the Inaugural Anthem Awards. An award in this category recognizes organizations for outstanding excellence or innovative strategy in raising well-informed interest, knowledge, and perception in the realm of sustainability, environment, and climate. We were up against some big names in the Inaugural Anthem Awards contest. Among the winners in the Awareness Category were the National Geographic Society, World Economic Forum, and The Solutions Project. “The award talks about the quality of the Virtual Academy.” Mark Rowland, one of Green Our Planet’s board members, said. The Anthem Award wasn’t the first time the quality of Green Our Planet’s Virtual Academy was recognized with an award. Earlier in 2022, videos “What is Environmental Change?” and “Bees, What Would We Do Without Them?” were both included in the Official Selections and Merit Award categories of the Nature Without Borders International Film Festival. Thank you so much to Julie and Steve from the Andre Agassi Foundation for sponsoring the creation of the films. We could not have done this without your belief and investment in our team! Thank you to Farmer Joe and Farmer Tom for doing such a great job presenting in the films (and many other films!). Thank you to Greg, Kim, and the rest of the Virtual Academy team for creating these fantastic films. What an honor! 

We’ve been planning for some big events coming up! Have you heard whispers of a secret garden party happening in Las Vegas? Or felt excitement in the air about a Giant Student Farmers Market. At the Secret Garden Party, coming up on April 8, 2022, we will be celebrating our Green Our Planet family, including members of our team, sponsors, and teachers from schools we partner with. This year’s Secret Garden Party theme is “Protect the Pollinators,” including the bees whose daily pollinating work provide us with over 30% of all the food we eat. Oh, and speaking of food, we have a mouth-watering vegan menu planned, created by our Chef-Nutrition team (have you ever had “ahi” made from watermelon?). The party will be held at a two-acre secret garden location, only to be revealed to guests the day before the event. Do you want to support Green our Planet’s programming and impact the community while enjoying a magical night in the garden, too? You can read more about the event and purchase your tickets here!

Who’s excited about the Giant Student Farmers Market? Yes, you read that correctly. Green Our Planet’s Student Farmers Market is back on after two years of dormancy during the pandemic! Through Green Our Planet’s STEM garden programs across Nevada, students have been nurturing the land from seed to harvest, heightening their connection to nature and where food comes from, all while learning STEM experientially. Sixty schools and over 600 students will come together in Downtown Summerlin to share the fruits of their labor with the Las Vegas community. When folks prepare dinner that night with local, student-grown produce, we hope that the experience brings them a little closer to the Earth and to a sense of gratitude for all it provides. The market will be held on Friday, April 22, 2022, at Downtown Summerlin from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Walk-ins are welcome, but you can also learn more and RSVP to the event here or through the Facebook Event. We hope to see you there!

One of our most significant accomplishments in the past month was launching our Spring 2022 Hydroponics Cohort! This cohort is made up of middle and elementary schools from Alaska to New York. It also includes the first-ever museum to receive our Hydroponic STEM programming, the San Diego Air and Space Museum! The museum plans to use the hydroponics systems in their mars and Apollo exhibits to demonstrate how astronauts use similar systems to grow food in space. We couldn’t be more excited to welcome this diverse cohort into the Green Our Planet family!

This month, we’ve been feeling especially appreciative of our teachers who’ve been working so hard to deliver a magical and engaging education for their students through the pandemic’s challenges. We thought they deserved a little extra loving this month. So, on Valentine’s Day, the Green Our Planet team delivered flowers and thank you notes to 23 schools! Nine hundred and twenty teachers and principals received flowers or plants and were so surprised and delighted. Thank you so much to the Venetian for donating the beautiful flowers to Green Our Planet to be able to offer this gift of appreciation to our hard-working teachers.

All in all, it’s been a busy and exciting month here at Green Our Planet! We are so grateful for our supporters and the magical work we get to do every day. Thank you for being part of our community and helping us make a difference!

If you have any questions or want to get more involved, please reach out to us here. 🌎🌱

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