(Above: Greenschools Executive Director & Founder, Robin Organ)
According
to the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health
Promotion, asthma is the leading chronic illness among children and
youth in the United States. Not surprisingly, asthma is also one of the
leading causes of absenteeism in schools.
Robin
Organ taught middle school and high school students for over eight
years and experienced first-hand how an unhealthy school environment
can adversely affect teachers, students, and staff. “When I was
teaching, I would repeatedly get my students’ colds,” remembers Organ
of her time teaching Theater, English and Public Speaking. Although
Organ was concerned about her health, she received little attention
from colleagues when she brought up the issue. “People would tell me
that it was normal for a young teacher to catch their students’ colds,”
she says. Eight months after her second daughter was born, Organ became
hypersensitive. “I became allergic to everything from food dyes to skin
care products” she explains. “I became so sick that I almost died.”
When
Organ saw that her two young daughters were also suffering from skin
and respiratory issues caused in part by food products and other
products being used at their school, she decided to do something about
it. “I went to their pre-school and asked if the teachers would look at
something as simple as removing bleach from the classroom,” she says.
“Within their school there were other kids with food-related allergies
and when I confronted the school about it, they were really open to my
suggestions.” What started out as an effort to keep her children from
having to suffer from school-related environmental illness has evolved
into Greenschools.
Organ is the Founder of Greenschools, a
non-profit organization whose mission is to create greener &
healthier learning environments through education and awareness. Since
Organ started Greenschools a year and a half ago, the organization has
directly helped over 40 schools in Massachusetts improve their
environmental and wellness policies.
Being “green” is an idea
that seems to saturate our culture. For many, being green simply means
adhering to the three Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle. For Organ however,
being green is also closely linked to living a healthy lifestyle. “Many
of the healthiest foods don’t come in a package that creates waste for
the environment,” she explains. “There are so many groups that do only
environmental work, and there are other groups that only work with
nutrition. The ultimate goal of my organization is to combine the two.”
That’s why Greenschools’ projects address not only environmental issues
in schools but also nutrition. “We look at the food that goes into a
school: from the food being prepared in the cafeteria to the food that
parents are packing for their children’s lunch,” she explains.
Greenschools’ website even offers alternatives
to the traditional sugar-packed bake sale, suggesting items that
instead encourage healthful eating habits and that don’t require
wasteful packaging. Although Greenschools addresses both environmental
and wellness issues in schools, Organ and her team make sure not to
slack on either issue. When it comes to environmental issues in the
classroom, they take a serious look at what goes into a school
building, from the rafters all the way down to the overhead markers.
“One of our primary concerns is air quality and chemicals that go into
a school building,” she says. “We have a program that involves training
the staff at a school to identify toxins and chemicals they may be
using in the classroom, and then we work with them on replacing those
products with environmentally preferred products.”
In addition
to providing accurate and comprehensive information on how to live an
environmentally-friendly and healthy lifestyle, Greenschools also
strives to make their presentations fun, engaging, and audience
appropriate. Case and point, a character called Green Girl. One of
Greenschools’ most popular programs is a workshop for pre-school and
elementary school students where Green Girl teaches students how to
live more environmentally friendly lives and make safer choices for
their bodies. “She has a number of stories, songs, recycled crafts, and
interactive lessons that she does with students,” explains Organ.
“We’ve just added our fourth Green Girl to keep up with the demand.”
Many of Greenschools’ programs involve putting on workshops and
assemblies at schools where students learn about nutrition and
environmental awareness through hands-on activities, songs, and
exercises.
The lessons that students take away from these
assemblies often go beyond the classroom. “We’ve had students at the
middle and high school level who have gone on to host green events in
their own communities,” says Organ. “They’ve hosted environmental fairs
and organized park clean ups.” Through her efforts to help schools go
green, Organ has found teens to be some of the strongest advocates for
change. While her original mission was to educate schools, Organ
discovered that her agency's presentations actually empowered students
to do something with the knowledge Greenschools shared. “High school
students are very powerful advocates within their communities,” she
observes. “They work with our organization and within their own
environmental groups to change school policies.”
Helping
students initiate green changes in their own schools and communities is
a core part of Greenschools’ mission. “We’re very much a
student-friendly organization,” Organ emphasizes. “One of our goals is
to inspire teens and to help them implement green changes in their
schools and communities.”
Organ encourages any student who
wants to start a green initiative in their own school to look to
Greenschools as a resource. “We work to provide students and staff with
materials and resources to help them with any green project they are
interested in,” she says. Teens can also get involved with Greenschools
by volunteering as Student Ambassadors. “Our Student Ambassadors come
from all over Massachusetts and help us work on our newsletter,
curriculum, plan events, and work on a number of green initiatives in
their communities and throughout the state,” she says.
Creating
greener schools isn’t only about helping the planet and living
healthier lives. For Organ, it also means creating a better learning
environment for students. “If teachers are absent because of an
increased risk of adult asthma, and kids are missing days of school due
to sickness, it’s obviously going to impact test scores and student
learning,” she explains. “We want to show schools that going green
doesn’t have to be hard. Once you form a team of educators and students
who care about these issues, it seems endless as to what you can do.”
*If you are a registered member of our online community and interested in volunteering with Greenschools, check out their TeenLife Boston Profile.
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