Earth Day

Perley Primary Center celebrated Earth Day yesterday by actually being active. I think when I was in elementary school, all we did on Earth Day was wear green and talk about the environment with our teachers. Although this is better than nothing, it was nothing compared to what the kids at Perley Primary did to recognize Earth Day. These students helped green-up Michiana.


Nikon D3 at 35mm, 200 ISO, f2.8 at 1/1250 of a sec.

Each grade in the school was given a potted plant to give to a neighbor down the street from the middle school. I latched on to an ESL (English as Second Language) third grade class and pretty much followed them the entire time.

The class had problems finding someone who could take the plant, not because no one wanted it, but because the first home they went to was abandoned (quite typical here) and no one answered at the second door. Finally the third door was a winner, and the lady who answered the call was pretty overwhelmed. I don’t think it was the gift itself that surprised her, but the crowd of of 25, or so, third graders on her doorstep. The homeowner was very grateful, and the kids said “you’re welcome” in unison (with much coercion by their teacher).


Nikon D3 at 17mm, 200 ISO, f2.8 at 1/250 of a sec

Following the potted plant donation, all of the grades met at the park adjacent to the school and picked up trash for about half an hour. This part really surprised me. I do not think my school ever asked us to pick up trash that was not our own. Granted, I went to school in downtown San Francisco’s Chinatown, which is very different than Mishawaka, Indiana. All of the kids were given plastic gloves and taught not to pick up glass, needles or anything dangerous. But the boys repeatedly spoke about how they wish they would find something dangerous.


Nikon D3 at 19mm, 200 ISO, f2,8 at 1/4000 of a sec

There was one young boy who I ended up shooting the most. He was one of the students trusted with holding a garbage bag for recyclables (yes, the kids even separated trash from recyclables in the park). Although I didn’t get the impression that he truly understood the importance of what he and his classmates we doing, he still appeared genuinely concerned with cleaning up the park as much as possible (like it was a class assignment). I later found out he is actually a Liberian refugee, and has only been living in the U.S. for a year now.


Nikon D3 at 26mm, 200 ISO, f2.8 at 1/2000 of a sec

Eventually the students started to get distracted (any kids would if they we asked to pick up trash while an empty jungle gym lingers in the background). The teacher called in the troops and began the march back to class where she said the class could rest while she read them a book.

I lingered behind trying to pick photos in my camera incase there were any other names of kids I would need. That’s when I took this image.


Nikon D3 at 17mm, 200 ISO, f2.8 at 1/2500 of a sec

Kind of cliche, I know. Both of the kids in the image were the ones who were put in charge of holding the trash and recyclables bags. They were the most determined to do a good job in the class, and the teacher made sure they knew how well they did. "You guys carried the biggest bags of trash," the teacher said to the two boys.