Dispatches
Washington
February 22, 2010
On January 13th we had the pleasure of 
presenting to the students of St. Andrew Nativity School. The philosophy of the school alone is enough to spread the message of creating sustainability in a community, and yet they continue to make additions to their diverse goals. St. Andrew is dedicated to helping low income students achieve their full potential. As part of their expansion, St. Andrew invited the 
GLP tour to represent some sustainable practices they were experimenting with. Unique challenges were uncovered as one student explained that, after learning about the rules of recycling, her dad could only afford one trash can, so the entire pizza box would get recycled, as opposed to the whole thing being trashed. As we left we were notified that the students had also
started a recycling project and would be donating the rewards to the mission of GLP! As we talk of sustainability and travel to areas that are working on different issues, each is valuable and teaches us; enriching our experience and confirming just how important the message of sustainability is for both the earth, each other and our relationship to one another. Many thanks St. Andrew Nativity School!
Kids can be a great inspiration to us all. Because of one student’s hard work, we were able to visit 
The Option Program at Seward (TOPS). A young man in Ms. Binder’s class wrote a paper on sustainability and thought it would be a good idea to have us come share the message with his classmates. Thanks to the wonderful parents and teachers of Seattle, all of the kids were very aware of sustainable issues and had already been participating to help the 
environment in their own communities.
The John Stanford International School is an award winning public elementary school in the Seattle area. Offering a dual-immersion language program to all students, John Stanford addresses issues of cultural sustainability in and outside of the classroom. We met with 380 K-6th graders and talked with them about sustainable projects in South America. All grade levels actively participated in the conversation and were excited to continue learning. Thanks to the staff at John Stanford being such gracious hosts!
Although we were booked throughout Seattle, we still caught some time to check out pockets of the city. And speaking of sustainability, we found a gem, Theo Chocolate. “The only Organic, Fair Trade, Bean-To-Bar Chocolate Factory in the United States.” Theo Chocolate is the perfect example of a sustainable business, and after taking a tour and eating tons of yummy samples we were hooked!
The Seattle Girls School was our next stop and we were a bit surprised. After meeting Wendy and setting up our equipment, the girls walked in and starting spewing personal facts about Kyle and I. How do they know all this, we thought. It ends up, that our brief experience actually reflected the skills these girls had learned. Being in an environment that teaches girls to be agents of change, to be confident, speak out against injustice and to be solution oriented. Thus, they had done their research on us and on GLP and were fully engaged in learning about sustainable practices and questioning techniques. Way to go Seattle Girls School!
We ended January on a great note presenting to 400 2nd-5th graders at Lawton Elementary School. Talk about motivated, although they were just beginning their transition into a “green” school, Lawton’s students were excited to have us there and eager to answer our questions. When asked what they use to help soil become rich with nutrients, one young student shouted “poo!” Of course we all had a laugh and someone followed him up by saying “composting”. These kids were truly amazing!
