Middle School students worked together to plan, plant and tend our pollinator garden. Audrey Hillman, a local Master Gardener, heled us decide what to plant. She donated plants from her own garen: Wild Be Balm, Anise Hyssop, Giant Yellow Hyssop, and Sedum. The garden has not only been a refuge for pollinators, it has also allowed students in all grades to learn about the important of pollinators to our environment.
Green Cleaning and Air Quality
Each year, the Science Club tests and perfects green cleaners for classroom use. Members also test air quality of the school and report the findings to the school community during morning announcements.
Healthy Eating Club
6th grade students are invited to participate in the Healthy Eating Club, which meets once a month during lunch. Each member brings a dish to share. We research why the food shared is healthy or how we can make our favorite dishes healthier. We also emphasize the benefits of using local produce.
Walk-a-Thon
Another great tradition at Mother Seton School is the annual Walk-a-Thon. We combine exercise and fresh air with fundraising to help those in need. Our students follow a 2-mile course that winds around the campus and our neighborhood. Each year, the proceeds raised are donated to a cause. Past recipients include the Sister Brenda Monahan Scholarship Fund, the Catoctin Pregnancy Center, a local alumnus battling cancer, and Daughters of Charity missions overseas.
We try very hard to help our students assum responsibile stewarship by donating items that can be used by others not only as a away of helping those in need, but as a way to reuse items and reduce solid waste in landfills. Examples include:
A Toteworthy Collection
Students were encouraged to donate any type of tote bag that coule be used by CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children). The bags are useful to children in a crisis situation when they are relocated to a foster home. Our school community donated over 200 totes!
Coat Drive
We collected winter coats in children and adults sizes for the Emmitsburg Elementary Homeless Student Outreach Program and the Student Homelessness Initiative Partnership program (SHIP) through the Lions Club.
Used Uniforms
Students are encouraged to donate school uniforms that no longer fit so that they can be reused. Uniforms that can no longer be used are donated to our neighbors, the Emmitsburg Glass Company, to be used as rags.
Tabs for Ronald McDonald House
Our entire school community participates in collecting tabs from aluminum cans for the Ronald McDonald program.
Recycling Old Toys, Markers, and Crayons
Students were encouraged to recycle unwanted or broken toys through TerraCycle in partnership with Tom's of Maine. Used markers are collected and recycled through Crayola's Color Cycle Marker collection and old crayons are recycled through The Color Initiative.
Our Worm Farm
Using our food scraps to help our plants rather than wasting them at Mother Seton School. Student volunteers collect food scraps at lunch and put them in the worm farm. Volunteers also clean out the farm in the spring and put the castings on our gardens.
Saving Plants
Mr. Wivell, Head of Maintenance at our school, attended the Mid-Atlantic Nursery and Tree Show in January of 2017 and brought back many plants that were designated to be dumpster fodder. We planted some of the plants at our school and offered many plants to members of our school community to take home and plant.
Water Conservation Symposium
8th grade students, as the leaders of our school, held a water conservation education program. The entire school community attended the event. We also invited the public by advertising the event on our Facebook Page, hanging fliers at the local grocery store, and at Mount St. Mary's University.
Around the School
5th grade students made posters to hang near water fountains and sinks to remind all of us not to waste water.
Rain Barrels
Our students are all aware of the rain barrels we have placed near the playground and our gardens. We use the collected rain to water our pollinator garden, the butterfly garden, and the pumpkin patch.
