The Earth-Protectors Auction
By Melissa Milgrom, Third-Grade and Pre-K Parent
This spring, the third graders (a.k.a. "the Earth-Protectors") auctioned off inventions that they made out of recycled objects, raising $1,000 for the environment in just three hours. In May, they presented the check to Stop Global Warming, a national nonprofit organization.
At the ceremony, the Earth Protectors (dressed in green and blue) recited poems, delivered impassioned speeches, did an interpretive dance, and screened a film they had made where they explained the complicated science of global warming. Max Karlin, in a tie and Beatles cap, pleaded with the crowd to consider the polar bears. "Stop the flooding!" he said. Campbell Harding, acting in a commercial that he himself had written, hawked a cardboard model of Mother Earth in her better years. Then Sabine Janssen presented the check to spokesperson Heather Lylis. Lylis told the kids that the film will be posted on the organization's Web site (www.StopGobalWarming.org). "Over one million people will learn about you guys and how unbelievable you are!" she said. "You are going to save the planet! You guys are my heroes!"
Click here to see photos from the event
Of course, the third-grade heroes have their own heroes, and one of them, Noelle Gentile, the teacher who came up with the idea for the auction, greeted the crowd at the actual event: "This is the generation that's going to keep Mother Earth going!" The crowd cheered, waving their auction paddles as if they were flags at an Earth Day parade. Bidding started at fifty cents and climbed to $55 (for a lamp made from recycled Poland Spring water bottles called "Lighting Bulb"). Everyone rolled up his or her sleeves and raised the paddles (index cards affixed to popsicle sticks). Beatrice Hood made a kaleidoscope (paper towel tube, rubber-bands, a pencil, and mirror strips). Izzy Roberts bowling set was plastic Perrrier bottles (pins) and a Styrofoam ball. Trevis Hill's fish bowl (pickle jar with live goldfish) was among the most popular items.
Nick Ward's "Snow Jet" sled (Fresh Direct box with gold-leaf flame decals) came with a pair of protective goggles (two plastic applesauce containers strung together with a shoelace). Nick put them on and said, sadly: "I wish I could try the sled, but it's NOT snowing out."
Kenya Springer made a drum and maracas out of cut-up C.D.s. Emmy Heaton's pinhole camera (tin foil, cook tin, tape and paint) really works. "You don't have to throw things away. You can turn them into something new," she explained.
Nathaniel Levine, eager to talk with the press, said: "I made a box to tell people that cars pollute the air and make things smoggy." To which James Hagin added: "Gas destroys the ozone that protects us from the sun." As he spoke, he demonstrated his own invention: stilts made from rope and pineapple juice tins. He tottered on the stilts, explaining their intended purpose: To make people taller. "It′s better to use them with shoes on because the sides are sharp. Or if you have really tough feet," he said.
"I think it's good that we are giving money to the environment," said Samira Davis. "It's terrible for the endangered animals to cut down the rain forest," added Sabine Janssen. "It's like killing your own kind." To which Jamie Weyfald said: "It's good to help tsunami victims and people who are part of a tragedy." She paused to describe her own flower vase. "Decoupage is a very hard thing to make."
Of all the items on the block that day, the most innovative was Eduardo Fernandez's "Ice Cap 911: A Theory on How to Save the Polar Ice Cap." The three-paneled display had a diagram, a poster, and a diorama-like depiction of a ship on the sea that Eduardo hopes someone will actually make one day. "It's a ship that will fight global warming," explained the young inventor, pointing to the scale model. Franklin Bade was the happy recipient of Ice Cap 911. His mother, Jane Stageberg, snatched it for $25, saying, "I'm going to hang this in the kids' bedroom. Eduardo's a good friend, and Franklin is proud of his achievement." Ice Cap 911, as it happens, comes equipped with its own munitions: floating bombs that explode and freeze melting ice.
Posted on: June 26, 2007
