Orcas Kids Plant for the Planet

— by Cara Russell and Margie Doyle —

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Orcas students become Climate Ambassadors, committed to planting the planet.

Twenty-three students from Orcas Island, Kirkland, Enumclaw and Seattle gathered with adult volunteers at Orcas Island School District on Saturday to “Plant for the Planet” and to learn about and become climate change “ambassadors.”

After a brief slideshow presentation created by then 9-year old Felix Finkbeiner, the founder of the Plant for the Planet movement, the students watched the video, “How we children save the world.”

Then the kids took part in planned games and group activities to display the distribution of the earth’s population (illustrated by poker chips); wealth (illustrated by gold-wrapped candies); and pollution (illustrated by small balloons.

The kids learned that the U.S. and Europe have an equal percentage of the world’s wealth, although Europe has double the population of the U.S. They were impressed that Asia’s population has seven times the numbers of the U.S. and Europe combined. They discussed the concept of “Climate Justice” and the dangers of destroying the habitat of non-human life on the planet.

After a break, the kids had a session on public-speaking and the importance of sharing what you know and how you feel about it, with gestures, posture, voice projection and eye contact. Then they had the chance to demonstrate what they’d learned, giving brief, stand-up speeches to their peers, followed by a critique. Volunteer David Turnoy encouraged the kids to state the positive before offering a criticism, and moved the shy and the bold students right along.

The students’ sense of responsibility to share the message came through loud and clear, as they stated:

• “Since we caused the damage, we should make up for it.”
• “We must be involved. We don’t have a choice, because if we do nothing, we won’t be here.”

Following the lunch break for pizza, provided with a substantial discount by Portofino’s, the two dozen students joined Rachel Bishop to plant a fig tree in the school garden, right next to another fig tree.

The kids wore “Plant for the Planet” T-shirts, made from tiny wood fibers, which are more environmentally friendly to produce than cotton. They join other groups world-wide with the goal of training one million ambassadors, and to get each one to plant and inspire others to plant one million trees, for a total of one-thousand-billion trees planted worldwide. “Stop Talking, Start Planting” is their motto.

“You cannot plant a tree unless you plant yourself,” said camp leader Michael Foster.

After planting the fig tree, the young climate ambassadors engaged in a brainstorm exercise back in the gym, writing out as many ideas as they could think of to inspire more people to plant all these trees. The kids had many ideas to raise awareness within their schools as well as to get government and companies involved.

The kids then individually took their favorite ideas and jotted them down in their own “Plant for the Planet” notebooks. After that they followed with completing an individual action plan.

At 4 p.m., the parents arrived and listened to the students as they presented a slide show of floods, droughts,and forest fires, the ever-shrinking glaciers, climate refugees, and other consequences of climate change.
A three point plan was announced:

1. Leave fossil fuels in the ground;

2. Plant 1,000 billion trees;

3. Combat poverty with climate justice.

After the presentation, each student stood up and said their commitment. Some plan to plant over 100 trees themselves, and others vowed that they would inspire others to join them. Every student graduated as an ambassador for climate justice and received the book ‘Tree by Tree,’ and a certificate signed by Felix Finkbeiner with a number.

Today, 193 countries are planting trees for ‘Plant for the Planet,’ with 34,000 kid ambassadors leading the way. So far over 13 billion trees have been planted worldwide. It is their goal to have one-million ambassadors by 2020 and reach their one trillion tree goal in that same year.

The event was organized by Orcas resident Adrienne Reed, who lives part-time in Seattle. Reed was the driving force in bringing ‘Plant for the Planet’ to Orcas. The camp was sponsored with donations and support by Doe Bay, Outlook Inn, The Garden House, the Orcas Co-op, Portofino Pizzeria, Farm to Cafeteria, The Orcas Island School District, and Elementary School Principal Kathy Page. Reed said, “We are so grateful for all the support from the community and most especially a generous donation in memory of Richard Steinhardt.”

For more information visit https://www.plant-for-the-planet.org/