National Environmental Education Week: A Call for Partners, Hosts, and Sponsors

NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION WEEK GETS BOOST IN NEW JERSEY
Year-long public awareness campaign gets underway for the Garden State...

TRENTON (NJ) - In celebration of the fourth annual National Environmental Education Week, Building Open Opportunity Structures Together (BOOST) is excited to invite public, private, and home school educators, parents, and students as well as corporate and business leaders to become actively engaged by being a partner, sponsor, or host of an activity or set of activities during EE Week, which runs from April 13 through 19, 2008. For workshop inquiries, please call (206) 202-2883, or email request for information to gsssetcentral@yahoo.com.

National Environmental Education Week (www.EEWeek.org) promotes a full week of educational activities in K-12 classrooms, nature centers, zoos, museums, and aquariums. Students from across the U.S. will get involved activities like interactive workshops, field trips, and site tours that will encourage environmental learning and stewardship. EE Week is coordinated by the National Environmental Education Foundation, in partnership with the National Arbor Day Foundation, the North American Association for Environmental Education and dozens of other non-profit organizations and local, state, and federal agencies, sponsored by Canon U.S.A., Inc.

BOOST is just one group participating in National Environmental Education Week from April 13-19, but over 5 million students and thousands of educators are anticipated to participate in the national program, culminating in over 50 million hours of environmental learning by Earth Day on April 22, 2008. We are very pleased to offer an opportunity to organizations, schools, and agencies throughout the state of New Jersey to schedule a one hour workshop, “Take Green Action Now”. This interactive learning activity is facilitated by one of BOOST’s environmental education specialists, Angelica Redpath-Perez, President of Imagine Green Design Corp. and the principal organizer of the Take Green Action Now: Step It Up program for the "National Day of Climate Action” held on November 3, 2007, for the students at Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. For workshop inquiries, please call (206) 202-2883, or email request for information to gsssetcentral@yahoo.com.

As the nation's largest environmental education event, National EE Week promotes understanding and protection of the natural world by actively engaging K-12th grade students and educators in an inspired week of environmental learning before Earth Day.

BOOST was founded three years ago as a direct response to several major redevelopment projects proposed for a small, densely populated, yet economically struggling neighborhood in the north ward of New Jersey's capital city, Trenton. Since its inception, BOOST has developed a growing network of individuals, organizations, institutions, and agencies to highlight, promote, and advance equitable and environmentally conscious planning and decision-making, particularly in real estate development.

In addition to promotional EE Week, BOOST is forming an educational academy to advance sustainable development initiatives in New Jersey. One of the goals of the effort is to build knowledge and capacity for leadership in green, smart, and sustainable growth practices, policies, and future trends in job, career, education, business, education, and entrepreneurship.

How to become a partner for National Environmental Education Week:

If you work with children in a school, nature center, zoo, museum, aquarium, or other educational setting, you can join EE Week's efforts and gain national recognition for your work by becoming a partner. Individuals and organizations interested in becoming an EE Week partner can register at the National Environmental Education Week web site http://www.eeweek.org/.

Our youth need environmental eduacation. A recent MTV Poll conducted in June of 2006 (http://pressroom.greenmediatoolshed.org/attached-files/0/93/9300/mtv_environment_poll.doc.html) reports that teens think the environment is the most pressing problem they think they will have to face in their lifetime. EE Week provides a platform for teachers to discuss these issues with their students, and allows teens to take positive action in an area where there is so much concern for the future.

How to become a sponsor BOOST's Green, Smart, and Sustainable Education and Training:

BOOST is offering corporations, small businesses, and individuals who share our values to inquire with us about our cause-related marketing sponsorship program. Our Green, Smart, and Sustainable Stakeholder Education and Training series of public awareness forums and workshops will be offered in five major cities and regions throughout the state of New Jersey beginning in May of this year and continuing into June of 2009.

Our program and media partners include the Sundance TV Channel, Urban Land Institute Northern New Jersey District Council, Rutgers University Leading Institute, GreenWorks Studio, Visionary Economic Business Solutions, five New Jersey community colleges, New Jersey and Company Magazines print and digital media, as well as more than a dozen public and private leaders in their respective fields of expertise.

As a sponsor, you'll enjoy enhancing your corporate and business image, promoting good will among your employees and investors, reach high-caliber volunteers whom are all leaders in their professions, as well as foster an association between your customers, clients, and staff and our expanding network of partners, community stakeholders, and the public at large. With your financial support, we will reach tens of thousands of residents in the New Jersey tri-state region with our programming and your company’s message. To inquire about this exciting and unique opportunity, please call (206) 202-2883 or email GSS-SET Central.

How to become a host for National Environmental Education Week Activities:

Please visit EE Weeks web site to learn more about becominb a partner and ideas for hosing activities in your school, library, church, town, or city: www.eeweek.org

The National Arbor Day Foundation has an online tool to help you put the right tree in the right place at www.arborday.org/trees/righttreeandplace/.

· Taking a group to your local zoo, aquarium, or nature center. Enter your state at www.aza.org/FindZooAquarium/ for links to members of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association.

· Taking the Energy Hog Challenge: The Alliance to Save Energy provides an interactive guide for students to learn good energy-saving habits, help their families save money by reducing home energy bills, and protect natural resources for future generations, which can be found at http://www.energyhog.org/.

Additional energy activities, curricula, and other resources and information for EE Week can be found at http://www.eeweek.org/. EE Week is coordinated by the National Environmental Education Foundation, in partnership with the National Arbor Day Foundation, the North American Association for Environmental Education and dozens of other non-profit organizations and local, state, and federal agencies, sponsored by Canon U.S.A., Inc. For details and more information about local events, including how to register, see http://www.eeweek.org/.

Sponsorship/Cause-related Marketing Opportunities for Corporations, Small Businesses, and Individuals

Dear Business, Citizen, and Institutional Leaders:

Building Open Opportunity Structures Together (BOOST) will launch their 2008-09 Green, Smart, and Sustainable Stakeholder Education and Training series of public awareness forums and community capacity building workshops from 11am noon until 4pm on Saturday, June 7 at Classics Used and Rare Books located at 117 South Warren Street. This event is free to the public and will feature a screening of Sundance TV's "Big Ideas for a Small Planet, the Build" episode and a special appearance by Mitchell Joachim, principal with Terreform, a nonprofit philanthropic architectural design collaborative that integrates ecological principles in the urban environment. The GSS-SET launch will coincide with Classics Book Fair and Trenton's 30th annual Heritage Days Celebration. For more information, please contact gss-set@gss-set.com or call (206) 202-2883. Also fell free to visit http://www.gss-set.blogspot.com/ for additional activities by BOOST.

April 13 through 19 is National Environmental Education Week (EE Week) and April 22 is Earth Day. EE promotes a full week of educational activities in K-12 classrooms, nature centers, zoos, museums, and aquariums. Students from across the U.S. will get involved activities like interactive classroom-based workshops that will encourage environmental learning and stewardship. The success of National Environmental Education Week is dependent on educators across the country who promotes EE Week in their classrooms, schools, and communities. You can help us out by making a financial contribution and a volunteer to two to come into our educational spaces to share environmental stewardship lessons with our students, faculties, and administrators. Here are a few resources to get you started:

Building Open Opportunity Structures Together (BOOST) is seeking small financial donations through our nonprofit (VEBS) to get the message out the public, private, and home-school students, parents, teachers, administrators and the public at large. We have already had several inquiries from schools in New Jersey for BOOST to provide EE Week learning activities to hundreds of elementary and high school students. A donation and providing a volunteer from your company will enable us to provide and facilitate these activities and will entitle you to have hyper-linked company logo/insignia place in all of web sites of our Partners from now until the conclusion of this program in late April. We will reach tens of thousands of potential customers and clients with your marketing message.

Our sponsors will enjoy enhancing their corporate and business image, promoting good will among their employees and investors, reach high-caliber volunteers whom are all leaders in their professions, foster an association between their customers and our growing network of Partners and community stakeholders, and create an atmosphere for positive change throughout the state of New Jersey, the tri-state area, and AnyWhereUrbanUSA.

To inquire about this exciting and unique opportunity, please call (206) 202-2883 or email GSS-SET Central.

Thank you, in advance, for your interest in and support of Green, Smart, and Sustainable Stakeholder Education and Training 2008-09.

-----Tim Razzaq on behalf of BOOST and Partners of GSS-SET 2008-09 (see post at "Introduction to GSS-SET '08-'09")