After less than half a year of child-to-child organizing in the local community and schools, the EACY Club (Environmental Awareness for Children and Youth Club) culminated the year end with the first ever combined General Assembly and Christmas gathering held last December 20 at the Stairway Theater.
Attended by 167 members from all over Puerto Galera — from primary school scholars to some College members as well — this event marks a momentous milestone towards the new project’s vision to foster “a community where children and youth unite to become active stewards and vanguards of the threatened environment.” Click here to view images.
The General Assembly was called upon to give an overall orientation to all the members around the Club’s proposed bylaws which contain its vision-mission, general program of action and major organizational policies. The members were unified by the club’s mission to “promote awareness, understanding, responsible action and community solidarity towards our environment among fellow children and youth by providing them hands-on experience and minds-on investigation of the natural world and through the creation and development of innovative youth-oriented programs and resources.”
The Assembly also aimed to look back and learn from the past months’ experience as Club coordinators and members shared some stories of their achievements and challenges in implementing environmental awareness and cleanup projects within their respective communities and schools.
Each story was aptly accompanied by delightful and fun combined environmental /Christmas- themed cultural presentations. Members displayed green glitters on their faces to send environmental and Christmas messages to everybody as they shared sumptuous snacks to celebrate this extra special event.
The overwhelming attendance in the Assembly was comprised mostly of Stairway scholars who are members of this environmental club. Encouragingly also, almost 40 of those who attended this event were newly recruited members from outside the group of Stairway scholars—a significant number, and reflects one of the main rationales for EACY and the Assembly. As the Club expects its membership to sprout significantly in the following months, the Club’s bylaws and gained experiences will guide its members and leaders in establishing active chapters in local villages and schools.
The EACY Club was formed last August from Stairway’s wide bench of scholars and initially focused on facilitating the Sea Adventure School or the School Boat and showcasing the Dr. Seuss’ environmental classic “The Lorax”. The EACY Project has for the moment shifted its focus to organizing environmental awareness and community cleaning campaigns in schools and villages. Using the child-to-child approach, the project aims to deliver the activities and campaigns in a community-based, child-oriented, and sustainable manner that hopefully will have positive lasting effects and behavioral changes on the children and their communities towards the environment.
As the club further expands and consolidates, and as 2015 opens, the project will once again sail the Sea Adventure School, this time mainly among High School students in Puerto Galera. Likewise, a new season of “The Lorax” is expected to run this coming summer – another busier year indeed in this long quest to save Mother Earth’s future for the children.