Today we’re talking to Lina Camacho, Centro’s Afterschool Program Coordinator.
Centro: How did you get interested in reusing and recycling?
Lina: In Colombia, there is more of an emphasis on reusing and recycling what we can instead of throwing everything away. I also studied Biology and Ecology there, and I’m so happy to be able to share what I’ve learned with the next generation.
Centro: How do you incorporate stewardship in the daily afterschool programming?
Lina: So many ways! We have a lot of conversations about where food comes from, where trash goes, the life cycles of different things like plants and butterflies. I try to reuse and recycle for art and ecological activities to increase awareness in the kids and their families that so much of what we end up throwing away is not necessarily trash!
This year, we crowdsourced a variety of materials from families like large coffee cans, boxes, paper bags, paper rolls, and many other things. For example:
Egg cartons became fun Easter characters…
Old water bottles helped demonstrate how sand, charcoal, and other materials filter water…
Other recycling became puppets and even simple instruments, as paper bags take on a new life as maracas…
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And noisemakers are created from paper plates and dried beans!
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I’m also really excited to share that we have partnered with Keep Knox Beautiful, who is teaching us about composting, how to make paper from scraps, and a bunch of other great skills. The kids just love it, and are finding joy in all the ways we can use what we have on hand rather than buying new materials.
Gathered leaves lend color to a collage
Sharing this with them is a part of my job that I really love, and rather than imposing how I think on them, I hope that they fall in love with this process of being good stewards and that we can make it fun!
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