Help get kids outdoors - resurrect No Child left Inside Act

Action Alert: Goal is 51 Senate co-sponsors

I need your help to shore up support for the No Child Left Inside Act by securing as many Senate co-sponsors as possible before Congress takes its August recess.

The Senate version of the No Child Left Inside Act (S.866) was introduced by Senator Jack Reed on Earth Day, April 22, 2009. Already, this bill has 15 bi-partisan co-sponsors—a great start, but still a long way from the goal of 51 co-sponsors. Please help us emailing your Senator today and urge him or her to become a co-sponsor (for a list of co-sponsors, click here). Visit your Senator’s website for their contact info; we have provided a model letter below.

As our leaders in Washington are focused on health care and climate change legislation, we have the opportunity to highlight the value of high quality environmental education in fostering good health and long-term stewardship of our planet.

A strong show of bipartisan support for programs that get children outside to learn and foster environmental literacy and stewardship will greatly aid our chances of swift passage of Senate Bill 866, the No Child Left Inside Act.

Please take a moment to personalize an email letter to your Senator today.

Abby Ybarra and Lucas Johnson
Grassroots Coordinators
No Child Left Inside Coalition
>
>
>
>
> DATE
>
> The Honorable MEMBER FIRST AND LAST NAME
> United States Senate
> __________ Senate Office Building
> Washington, DC 20510
>
> Dear Senator LAST NAME,
>
> We are writing to you today to urge you to become a co-sponsor of
> the No Child Left Inside Act of 2009 (S. 866). In doing so, you will
> take a leadership role in advancing our shared goals of achieving a
> clean environment, healthy and academically successful students, and
> a thriving 21st century workforce, for STATE NAME and the nation.
>
> Introduced this year by Senator Jack Reed, the No Child Left Inside
> Act will help to ensure that students across the country graduate
> from high school as environmentally literate citizens who are
> prepared to care for our natural resources and compete in a green
> economy. This bipartisan bill would provide funding to states for
> implementation of preK-12 environmental literacy plans, and expand
> opportunities for schools and school systems to integrate high
> quality environmental and outdoor education programs across the
> curriculum at all grade levels. Specifically, the bill provides:
>
> Incentives for states to create and implement State Environmental
> Literacy Plans to ensure their students are environmentally literate
> when they graduate.
>
> Grants to states to improve teacher quality and professional
> development to support implementation of environmental literacy
> plans in schools and school systems.
>
> Increased national capacity through grants to state education
> agencies, local education agencies, institutions of higher education
> or nonprofit organizations for dissemination of proven environmental
> education models and studies of national significance.
>
> The benefits of environmental and outdoor education are substantial.
> Use of the environment as a context for learning is proven to
> increase student achievement in core subjects, as well as improve
> engagement and reduce disciplinary problems. Outdoor learning and
> play are critical to early childhood development, both cognitively
> and emotionally. Early engagement in environmental studies fosters
> an interest in and aptitude for more complex science and technology
> as education progresses. Further, an understanding of the fragility
> and complexity of the natural world, and the role of individuals and
> communities in protecting it, is key to developing a long-term sense
> of civic engagement and environmental stewardship.
>
> ADD A PARAGRAPH HERE ABOUT YOU, WHY YOU THINK IT'S IMPORTANT TO EDUCATE KIDS ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT, LOCAL ORGS DOING AWESOME ENV EDUCATION WORK, ETC. IT IS IMPORTANT TO SHOW LOCAL CONNECTIONS.
>
> Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of an issue that is so
> critical to our children and to the future of STATE’S treasured
> natural resources.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> NAME
> TITLE

Earth Day Tribute #3: History of Earth Day

Earth Day eve 2009: An environmental writer, an interpretive ranger, and a sustainability planner sat around the kitchen table and realized none of us knew how, where, and how Earth Day got started. Found the following from The Wilderness Society - let me know if you find other information.

The seeds of Earth Day were planted in 1962 when Sen. Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin had this idea for Pres. JFK to go on a national wilderness tour. So JFK did in 1963 but it didn't get as much limelight as he'd hoped (anyone knows why?).

Summer of 1969, Nelson was on a conservation speaking tour and had an idea to tap into the energies of student-led protests, rallies and teach-ins around the Vietnam War and channel them into the environmental cause. He announced that in the Spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide environmental teach-in about the problems the world faced with its water, land, air, forests, oceans, etc. With the rising awareness over environmental concerns, this idea caught on like wildfire. Supposedly 20 million people participated in that first Earth Day in 1970.

I can only imagine the energy at that time. I imagine it was something like what happened the night Obama got elected. Grassroots. Walking around Berkeley and the Bay Area, I look around and see the ghosts of the 1970 nationwide grassroots efforts. If anyone have stories at that time, I'd love to hear them.