T.R.E.E. Talk: Summer Newsletter 2014

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June 21, 2014
* From The Directors
* A Year of Magic Spots
* A Year of Adventure and Learning!
* T.R.E.E. in the Community
* Branching into the Classroom
* Thanks to our Recent Donors
* From Our Students!

Happy Summer to the Friends of T.R.E.E.!

On this day of Summer Solstice, we are pleased to find ourselves having completed another successful year in the Outdoor Classrooms with hundreds of wonderful fourth, fifth, and seventh grade students from Orleans, Plaquemines, and Jefferson parishes. We enjoyed a year of new beginnings working with schools like Esperanza and Airline Park for the first time. With the help of 350 teacher and parent volunteers, T.R.E.E. was able to serve 1,400 students this year with Earthkeepers™, Sunship Earth™, and Sunship III™. We are so grateful to partners like the National Park Service at Jean Lafitte, and the City of New Orleans at Brechtel Park for sharing their outdoor classrooms, and Volunteers of America and ARC of New Orleans for their volunteer services to prepare some of our educational materials.

We were out and about a bit more this year – Hollygrove Market & Farm, Whole Foods, and the Louisiana Science Teachers Association Conference. Today, we will be at Dillard University with up to 500 Girl Scouts participating in their STEM Extravaganza as we present the “Basin Game” developed many years ago with help and support from the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation. Scouts will discover what it’s like to become water drops in our basin or watershed, dealing with phases of the water cycle, and human impacts linked to stormwater runoff.

To sustain our work with area students, we have been privileged to grow, make new, and continue relationships with many individuals like you, several corporations, and multiple foundations. We stated our case to Louisiana State Lawmakers, we participated in GiveNOLA Day, and several small businesses generously donated 20% of a given day’s sales to bring children to programs. We celebrated the Earth with a B’Earthday Party in April, where we got to see many of the students we serve along with their families. We can’t wait to do this event again.

We are grateful for your support and interest – please keep helping us spread the word that outdoor classroom experiences for students are life-changing, and that T.R.E.E. expands classroom teachers’ capacity to cover required topics and incorporate necessary skills.

Come with us on this journey looking back over the school year by enjoying this Summer Newsletter with information and of course, fabulous images!

We look forward to the upcoming school year, but in the meantime, we hope that like us, you will find some time for rest and relaxation – where else but in nature!

Sue Brown & Heather Szapary

A B'Earthday Party was celebrated by all with experiential activities in the forest, doing crafts, and enjoying cake!

GiveNOLA Day, coordinated by the Greater New Orleans Foundation, was a citywide event to create awareness and raise needed funds. T.R.E.E. raised about $4,500 and made 20 new friends!