Hamilton Naturalist Club

Sept-24th- Jen Baker came out from the Hamilton Naturalist Club and shared a talk with the youth group on how our youth group could work with the Naturalist club. She talked about habitat restoration, removing invasive species, documenting healthy trees and on the club's properties as possible volunteer and learning opportunities.
She talked about the North end project (restoring Nature in Hamilton's north end) that we could as a group help expand on- into a more naturalized area that would benefit the urban environment.

She also mentioned Falcon Watch and other programs they have. We are invited to go out on a hike to the sanctuaries and they can organize a bus ride.

Eat Local, Buy Local, Support Local

 

By Joy Liu-Youth group

At one of our first meetings, the members of the Environment Hamilton Youth group were all looking forward in the prospect of making a difference in the city.  

Our purpose was to reach out to our schoolmates and peers to encourage them to make greener choices.  We were all enthusiastic about the idea of creating videos.  Thus, our first project was born; a series of four short ‘commercials’ with the catchphrase, “Everything’s changing, what about you?”  We want to get across the idea of the ever growing green trend, focusing on the environmental movement in Hamilton. 

We were able to complete our first video with much hard work, dedication, and fun.  The co-op students at Bizclip also volunteered to help edit the video. We premiered at the Sir John A. Macdonald Environmental Film Night, which was focused on “Eating Local”.  Our video illustrated the nutritious value of local carrots versus the ‘exhausted’, nutrition depleted California carrots by making use of EH’s Climate Carrot costumes.  Two students adorned the costumes and competed against each other in jumping rope, pull-ups, push ups and a final race; all of which the California carrot was comically unsuccessful at.  We then showed clips of teenagers buying food from the Hamilton’s Farmer’s Market and working with urban farmer Russ Orht;digging a garden on the front lawn of city house.

Making the video was as entertaining as the finished product.  Next on our agenda is to create three more videos focused on clean transportation, “Refuse, Reuse, Remake”, and energy conservation and alternative energy.

Youth Group Launch

Feb 20th- We had a great turn out with a good 20 youth coming out to the Environment Hamilton Launch and screening of the Story of Stuff.
We are in the process of deciding who kind of work we want to do, what our goals are etc. We are pretty excited because we are planning to create a 4 minute video that is geared to positively peer pressure our peers!
If you are between the ages of 12 and 19, or if you would like to share your skills with us (EDITING!!!!) give me a shout.

Making Connections

Here at Environment Hamilton, we are always looking for new ways to collaborate with community players and members. For example, we connected with the Aboriginal Health Centre through our Greening Sacred Spaces project and held a wonderfully inspiring event with the Wisdom Keepers (Aboriginal Elders share their teachings on taking care of mother earth).

Earlier in the month, we connected with Hamilton Print Studio to give a presentation about environmental concerns/issues in our neighbourhoods and communities.

The project, called Sitelines is an introduction to print making techniques in the schools-for grades 5 and 6. The kids learn exciting printmaking skills in the context of ecologically concerns in the built environment and in relationship to 'community' (extending back into the past as in, how was it like when their grand parents, great grand parents were growing up?). They get to make fantastic art.

We visited Prince of Wales school and will be going to Queens Rangers on the 5th of April.

We are also connecting with Hamilton Youth and have started a youth group at Environment Hamilton.
Please see the next post for more details.