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Environmental Health Day at the Zoo Oct. 25 Agencies team up with 670 local Girl Scouts

Release Date: 10/20/2003
Contact Information: Bonnie Smith, 215-814-5543

Bonnie Smith, 215-814-5543

PHILADELPHIA – Six hundred and seventy Girl Scouts and their families will learn about the importance of healthy environments and lifestyles at an environmental health day at the Philadelphia Zoo, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, October 25. The event will take place in the Peacock Pavilion.

The girls, ages 6 through 11, will participate in a day of fun activities, sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the City of Philadelphia, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, University of Pennsylvania, Grand Central, Inc., Kinship Care Resource Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service mid-Atlantic regional office, and Girl Scouts of Southeastern Pennsylvania.

“Girl Scouts will share what they have learned with their community, so ultimately many people in the Delaware Valley, and our environment, will benefit from this special program,” said Donald S.Welsh, EPA mid-Atlantic regional administrator.

We support this community event that will show Girl Scouts and their families how physical activity, good nutrition and avoiding cigarette smoke allows people to promote their own good health,”said Dalton Paxman, regional health administrator for the mid-Atlantic regional office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The girls will participate in a variety of interactive activities on subjects including lead poisoning, indoor air quality, second-hand smoke and integrated pest management. In addition to learning about a topic and showing their understanding of the issue, the girls are required to educate others about the topic in order to earn badges.

These interactive activities will be going on simultaneously throughout the program from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Activities include:

• Clean and Green – Girls will learn about household products and pollution. They will make natural cleaning products like glass cleaner, bathroom cleanser and furniture polish.

• Stop a Draft – Girls will learn about the importance of energy efficiency and will make “draft stoppers” to close up the spaces and cracks under doors and along windowsills.

• Cooking with the Sun – Saving wood and fuel is the focus of this activity. Girls will make a solar bowl cooker and roast marshmallows over it!

• Smoke Free – Girls will learn how second-hand smoke affects the air and will plan a “Smoke out” day for the community.

• Germ Busters – The girls will learn about the role germs play in causing disease and how to eliminate and control germs by doping a demonstration using cinnamon, cooking oil and soap and water.

Editor’s note: Reporters should enter the zoo at gate H. The event will be held primarily in the Peacock Pavilion. The activities the agency representatives will lead will be hands-on – great visuals for broadcast and print. Interviews with participants can be arranged by contacting Carol A. Harris at (866/215) 564-2030, ext. 231 or e-mail or Bonnie Smith at (215) 814-5543. The event will be held at the Philadelphia Zoo on Saturday, October 25 which is also Boo at the Zoo, a very popular annual zoo event, a great opportunity to cover two visual stories in one place.