From Kids’ Mouths…
By Marvin Miller, AIB President
I recently returned from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, where I attended Canada’s Communities in Bloom celebration. While there, I developed a little callus on my forehead from changing hats, as I represented both America in Bloom and my full-time employer, Ball Horticultural Company. For AIB, I was proud to share some of the best ideas from our cities, as recounted in our “Best Ideas” book. The crowd seemed very receptive to the idea that we share over 2,000 unique ideas from U.S. cities, arranged according to the eight judging criteria in our book, and a number of books were sold. Order your copy of the 2010 edition of the AIB Best Ideas today.
As a representative from Ball, which sponsors the “International Challenge” coordinated by Communities in Bloom, I was proud to announce Warrick, New York, as the winner among smaller cities, and Zlin, Czech Republic, as the winner among larger cities in the competition. (Any city winning a population category in AIB’s competition is eligible to compete in the International Challenge.) Warrick, which entered based on its 2003 win in the AIB competition, was only the second U.S. city to win this competition in either population category, and the folks in Warrick deserve all the kudos in the world, literally.
While sharing best ideas and handing out international awards is indeed exciting, perhaps the most memorable experience for many during the four-day event was provided by a group of junior high and high school students who performed a series of skits that addressed environmental issues. In the opening act of “MindShift,” these students counted from 1890 to 2030 in five-year increments, as witnessed by a crew from Starship Earth, traveling through our galaxy. Crew members reported steadily increasing atmospheric and environmental degradation of the Planet Earth over time. In spite of repeated pleas to their captain that something must be done, the captain refused to intercede, saying, “We cannot stand in the way of progress.” In the end, the Earth is destroyed.
In Act Two, the troupe returned to the present, portraying students, and provided a number of suggestions of what individuals can do to help reduce their impact on the environment. Suggestions were as simple as turning off the water while brushing your teeth and as complex as buying locally produced food to help reduce the carbon footprint from shipping cross-country. The message was clear: Shift your thinking and do something personally about the environment!
Many in the audience were moved to tears from the performance. In the exchange with the actors after the play, it was revealed that there are several different student troupes performing “MindShift” for 10th graders throughout the Halifax area, and the play has been playing since 2007. The play was originally written by a former high school student, who happened to be in the audience. Audience members called the play a powerful wake-up call, which effectively and almost too politely scolded adults to act before it was too late. Several suggested the play needed more adult venues, and begged the author, actors, and officials from the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) to share the play’s performances with others. To learn more about this play, see www.earthed.ns.ca/mindshift.
“MindShift” is just one program that HRM has been doing as part of their Adventure Earth Centre. HRM’s environmental educational activities have spanned the last 30 years and have reached 60,000 school students through a variety of activities aimed at different grade levels. (See http://www.earthed.ns.ca/ for more information about the various programs.) The Halifax Regional Authority should be congratulated on its activities in environmental awareness, as well as the superb job they did in hosting the 2010 edition of the Communities in Bloom National Symposium and Awards Ceremonies.
I recently returned from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, where I attended Canada’s Communities in Bloom celebration. While there, I developed a little callus on my forehead from changing hats, as I represented both America in Bloom and my full-time employer, Ball Horticultural Company. For AIB, I was proud to share some of the best ideas from our cities, as recounted in our “Best Ideas” book. The crowd seemed very receptive to the idea that we share over 2,000 unique ideas from U.S. cities, arranged according to the eight judging criteria in our book, and a number of books were sold. Order your copy of the 2010 edition of the AIB Best Ideas today.
As a representative from Ball, which sponsors the “International Challenge” coordinated by Communities in Bloom, I was proud to announce Warrick, New York, as the winner among smaller cities, and Zlin, Czech Republic, as the winner among larger cities in the competition. (Any city winning a population category in AIB’s competition is eligible to compete in the International Challenge.) Warrick, which entered based on its 2003 win in the AIB competition, was only the second U.S. city to win this competition in either population category, and the folks in Warrick deserve all the kudos in the world, literally.
While sharing best ideas and handing out international awards is indeed exciting, perhaps the most memorable experience for many during the four-day event was provided by a group of junior high and high school students who performed a series of skits that addressed environmental issues. In the opening act of “MindShift,” these students counted from 1890 to 2030 in five-year increments, as witnessed by a crew from Starship Earth, traveling through our galaxy. Crew members reported steadily increasing atmospheric and environmental degradation of the Planet Earth over time. In spite of repeated pleas to their captain that something must be done, the captain refused to intercede, saying, “We cannot stand in the way of progress.” In the end, the Earth is destroyed.
In Act Two, the troupe returned to the present, portraying students, and provided a number of suggestions of what individuals can do to help reduce their impact on the environment. Suggestions were as simple as turning off the water while brushing your teeth and as complex as buying locally produced food to help reduce the carbon footprint from shipping cross-country. The message was clear: Shift your thinking and do something personally about the environment!
Many in the audience were moved to tears from the performance. In the exchange with the actors after the play, it was revealed that there are several different student troupes performing “MindShift” for 10th graders throughout the Halifax area, and the play has been playing since 2007. The play was originally written by a former high school student, who happened to be in the audience. Audience members called the play a powerful wake-up call, which effectively and almost too politely scolded adults to act before it was too late. Several suggested the play needed more adult venues, and begged the author, actors, and officials from the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) to share the play’s performances with others. To learn more about this play, see www.earthed.ns.ca/mindshift.
“MindShift” is just one program that HRM has been doing as part of their Adventure Earth Centre. HRM’s environmental educational activities have spanned the last 30 years and have reached 60,000 school students through a variety of activities aimed at different grade levels. (See http://www.earthed.ns.ca/ for more information about the various programs.) The Halifax Regional Authority should be congratulated on its activities in environmental awareness, as well as the superb job they did in hosting the 2010 edition of the Communities in Bloom National Symposium and Awards Ceremonies.
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