Go Green (and save money) This Summer

Go Green (and save money) This Summer

By Cynthia Coe

Summer VBS and camp season looms, and children will soon attend programs centered on outdoor fun, bugs and critters, water play, and nature.  Will the programs themselves be “green”?

One of the “5 Marks of Mission” of the Episcopal Church is “to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.”  A focus on “going green” in children’s summer programs could be an easy – but transformational – way to “do” this fundamental ministry in our parish programs and camps.  Better yet, a focus on going green could also save your parish or camp money, too.

Here are several ways summer programs and camps could both go green and be good stewards of resources:

•  Use leftover art supplies – Use arts and crafts materials you or your volunteers already have on hand. Why use funding, time, and transportation costs to buy yet more materials, when your program (and participating families) likely have paper, crayons, and other craft materials sitting on shelves, unused? Asking families to clean out their cabinets and donate unused materials would be a great way to engage participants in reducing and re-using materials…and children and youth will have an opportunity to use their imaginations with oddball and leftover materials.
• Use natural materials when possible – In the summer all kinds of flowers, sticks, leaves, and vines are likely right outside your door for the picking. Why not make use of these natural materials in making arts and crafts projects? Children might gain an appreciation of nature while exploring and collecting materials in the process.
• Make something useful and practical – the best camp and VBS craft projects are those that are used over and over again long after summer is over. Coasters, pot holders, frig magnets, baskets, and even simple bracelets can be made and used by families as both useful objects and reminders of the summer program. Please don’t send home arts and crafts projects that serve no purpose and go straight to the trash can.
• Play outdoors – make use of parks, nature trails, gardens, and other venues in nature. Young people need to spend more time outdoors, just playing. Giving them the opportunity to do so will help them feel calmer and enhance creativity. And do you really need to rent that expensive water slide to make your program a success?
• Snacks – keep them healthy. If we are serious about respecting the dignity of each and every person, that includes their bodies. Junky, sugary, processed snacks serve no purpose except to make money for corporations. Set an example; serve good food. Consider planting a garden as a summer activity. Children will eat what they have participated in growing.

This list includes just a few ideas on how you can “walk the walk” of care of creation and of helping children and youth grow into healthy, environmentally aware adults. If you have additional ideas or examples of ways you have gone green in your summer program, feel free to comment and add to this list.

Blessings for a green summer, Cindy