'Floral goes green' so the world can, too

(l to r) Maria Walsh, 8, a second-grader at Floral Street Elementary School, and Holly Harris, 10, of Girl Scout Troop 30309, listen as Max Greenberg of Residential Energy Solutions discusses the importance of home insulation in the battle to save energy. PHOTO/KATE DALY

Shrewsbury - For Johannah Engle, 10, helping the environment includes re-usable grocery bags. In fact, thanks to her stepfather, visitors to the “Floral Goes Green” event at Floral Elementary School June 1 were able to take home a free Roche Brothers green, reusable grocery bag.

    Engle was one of three girls greeting guests to the environmental awareness event, handing out passports to children so they could keep track of the numerous displays they visited, and the clothe grocery bags for samples, brochures and other information about rain barrels, energy conservation, composting, organic gardening and more. While a number of businesses, including SELCO, Shrewsbury’s energy supplier, had displays, much of the information and many of the displays were presented by the kindergarten through third-grade students, Principal Todd Curtis said.

    “All the work around is at least partially, if not completely, done by the kids,” Curtis said, gesturing to walls hung with posters, graphs and poetry. “Each grade level had a different focus they worked on.”

    Much of the event was coordinated by members of the Young Environmental Stewards (YES), a weekly club, and their parents, said Kara Frankian, the second-grade teacher and YES adviser. This is the third annual Floral Goes Green event; it developed from a Biodiversity Day several years ago, followed by the first Floral Goes Green in 2001, she said.

    Frankian and other teachers make the environment an integral part of their classes, she said, making use of adjacent nature trails.

    “We are all committed to make the kids aware and involved in the environment,” she said. “[We’re] on the trail one day a week.”

    The lessons appear to be staying with the students. Alumna Chen Pekker is starting her own environmental group at Sherwood Middle School. Serena Medbury, 10, a fourth-grader at Floral, sat with her mother, Melissa Doyle, selling biodegradable toothbrushes made by Dr. DuMore.

    “I think these are really good for the earth,” she said. “And they’re good to use.

    The toothbrushes and other items sold at the event raised money for the nature trail behind the school.

     SELCO Marketing Manager Jackie Pratt spent the day helping students create environmental commercials that will air on local television. During Floral Goes Green, she showed students the efficiency of compact florescent light bulbs over the more common incandescent bulbs that lose a great deal of their energy as heat.