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Six Massachusetts Groups Receive Environmental Education Grants

Release Date: 10/12/04
Contact Information:

Peyton Fleming, public affairs office, 617-918-1008

For Immediate Release: October 12, 2004; Release # 04-10-17

BOSTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced it has awarded $44,943 in environmental education grants to six Massachusetts organizations. The six organizations are among 18 recipients throughout New England that were awarded a total of $188,900.

Selected from among 77 applicants in New England, the six Massachusetts organizations that received the grants were: the Westport River Watershed Alliance; the town of Amesbury; Cohasset Middle School; Tent City Corporation; the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, and the Walden Wood Project.

The grants are targeted to organizations that tackle community issues, environmental justice, curriculum development and environmental health issues.

"Environmental education gives our children the building blocks necessary to create a cleaner environment for their own futures and for future generations," said Robert W. Varney, regional administrator of EPA's New England Office. "These grants support environmental education projects that address such challenges as water ecology, preservation and environmental justice issues."

• Cohasset Middle High School is receiving $4,855 for a project that lets students and teachers further develop tools for assessing water quality in their monitoring efforts. The school’s summer institute engages students in investigations of community problems and trains students to conduct investigations according to protocols with the outdoor environment as the primary classroom.
• Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, based in Greenfield, is receiving $7,355 to expand its Earth Smart Travel program. The funding will expand the number, geographic range, and effectiveness of environmental education organizations that train teachers or reach students directly with activities in which students evaluate the impacts of their transportation options and identify Earth-friendly transportation issues.
• Tent City Corporation of Boston is receiving $4,800 for a project that uses a fuel cell environmental education unit in the Boston Renaissance Charter School’s 8th grade science curriculum. Renewable energy resources, such as hydrogen fuel cells, represent a relief for environmental problems and bring economic opportunities.
• Town of Amesbury is receiving $4,936 for its Camp Kent Environmental Center and the Powow River Conservation Area, which hold many programs environmental programs throughout the year. Among the programs is a six-week summer program for students in third through eighth grade and free monthly family programs. Camp Kent is creating a Citizen Scientist Project, in which citizens will do hands-on environmental surveys and field observations, increasing community knowledge of their natural environment, including better identification of bird species, flora and fauna.
• The Walden Wood Project of Lincoln is receiving $17,997 to expand its successful teacher training seminars with Approaching Walden. The project will target public high school teachers in Massachusetts for its two week seminar. Approaching Walden uses the writings of Henry David Thoreau and the Walden Wood setting to create lessons about their own communities and link those lessons to the state’s learning standards.
• Westport River Watershed Alliance is receiving $5,000 for two components of its Watershed Education Program: Adopt-A-Trout and Dune Restoration Project. These programs educate junior high and fifth grade students on environmental issues while improving the ecological health of some of the natural communities found in their own backyard.