Title

Engaged Organizations: Trinity Catholic Elementary School, Columbus, OH

Abstract

Trinity Catholic Elementary School has hosted numerous creation care activities and projects, including: annual school clean ups on Earth Day, food pantry contributions, weighing of food waste, travel to an environmental camp at Stratford Ecological Center, and supervising an environmental activities contest.

Description

Creation care work at Trinity Catholic (see link below) began when one teacher there took the initiative to organize student gardening activities on school grounds. Following her retirement, the school subsequently began an annual Earth Day project in which students pick up trash around the school and surrounding area. Additional creation care projects were added over time. As a means to support social justice issues in accordance with Laudato Si' principles, the school contributes to food pantries on a regular basis. The proceeds from the monthly cereal mornings are designated to various local charities as well. As a way to physically demonstrate to students how much food is wasted in a typical day, students could weigh and record the wasted food from the cafeteria over a two-week period.

Years ago, one of the technology instructors had received a small grant from a computer company, which was designed to have students complete various environmentally based activities in a contest format. At the end of the contest, the class had accumulated enough points to receive two computer cameras. Additional events and projects includes 4th and 5th grader participation in a 5-day environmental camp "Messages of the Earth" at the Stratford Ecological Center (see link below), two water fountains updated to accommodate individuals with disabilities, design of the water fountains to fill water bottles, and lights throughout the school buildings switched out to LED lights through the Diocesan grant program.

Trinity Catholic Elementary School homepage

Stratford Ecological Center homepage

Denomination

Christian

Sub-Tradition

Roman Catholic

Audience

Elementary School (grade K-5)

Middle School (grade 6-8)

Resources For Action

Success Stories

Issues

Eco-Justice/Poverty/Racism

Relation

Engaged Organizations: Stratford Ecological Center