Happy Fall Equinox

A few weeks late but the first storm of the season here in Northern California brought the fall season in full swing!  It has been a long transformative experience since last Springs post and it is good that the community has become self-determined and has found a new name that is member inspired and owned - Planet Earth Scouts.

New Planet Earth Scouts Logo

The holiday season is descending upon us with each passing day yet this year more families than ever are focusing not on the stress this time of year can bring (no one needs more of that) but are looking for alternative ways to celebrate the deeper meaning behind these holidays - like family, friends, and a basic sense of well being that the world events can too often leave us feeling a lack of.  

The Planet Earth Scout community will be working to create new and evolved resources for members over the winter months and you are invited to come and contribute your inspirations, ideas, and visions as a member of the Planet Earth Scout family.  

Happy Spring Equinox!

Happy Spring!
With the beginning of April just around the corner we are proud to commemorate our new partnership with the Children & Nature Network by participating in the Let's GO Campaign!


What is Let’s G.O.!?

Let’s G.O.! is a youth-inspired, youth-led C&NN month-long intergenerational campaign in April 2011 to rally people of all ages to Play, Serve and Celebrate outdoors in nature.

Who are the youth leading this campaign?

The C&NN Natural Leaders Network is a growing group of teens, college students and other young people whose personal connection to nature comes from their experiences in their own neighborhoods, woods, fields, arroyos, mountains and oceans. At the core of this network is the youth voice. The ideas and spirit of this network are being developed by youth in constant growth and they are moving fast!

April 2011 presents the first opportunity to pull together all of C&NN's partners and initiatives with a huge and inspiring push to get all people outside, and to encourage service projects to benefit the natural world. Some of these events will take place in conjunction with C&NN’s youth-inspired Natural Service Network, to cultivate and nourish a lifelong commitment to service projects that benefit the natural world.

Click here to learn more

2011 - Big Ideas & Agendas

THIS POST IS NULL & VOID DUE TO END OF ECUS EARTH SCOUTS PROGRAM - EARTH SCOUTS IS NOT A FLAGSHIP PROGRAM BUT AN ORNAMENTAL FRONT FOR THE ECUS BOARD TO MAKE CLAIMS OF BEING WORTHY OF YOUR DONATION. WE ARE LEAVING THIS POST UP FOR HISTORICAL REFERENCE OF WHAT OUR TEAM WAS WILLING TO ACCOMPLISH AND WORK TOWARDS FOR THE EARTH SCOUTS BUT THE ECUS BOARD WAS UNWILLING AND UNABLE TO MAKE THE TRANSITION INTO THE 21ST CENTURY ONLINE REALITY THAT EVERY ORGANIZATION IS FACING.  ITS A SHAME...

2011 will be the year that the Earth Scouts becomes the flagship program and focus of the Earth Charter U.S.!

Over the years the "Earth Scouts" has gone from Jan Robert's dream (Earth Charter U.S. founder) to first groups forming, then listserves all across the country getting started, to now having a solid base of families and facilitators who have been anchoring and developing their Earth Scout groups with a solid online network. The new network was created and sponsored by Earth Charter loyalists, the 'team' from SeThInk Media in 2010 as a part of the EC+10 Celebrations. You can read more about the Earth Scouts history here.

In 2011 the Earth Scouts will be featured, supported, and promoted as the flagship program of the Earth Charter U.S. and the board of directors is working to be able to provide vital resources to the growing network of Earth Scout families and groups. The Earth Charter U.S. annual board meeting is happening this month and a full update will be posted soon.

Some areas that are being discussed include:

• Non-profit tax exemption for groups doing fundraising activities
• Insurance for groups
• Earth Scout badges and other merchandise availability
• Publications and resource manuals
• Earth Scout festival resources
• Expanding Facilitator resource base
• Building solid alliances with supportive/complementary organizations

In 2012 it will be one decade since Jan's dream so let us all help make that dream fully manifested in 2011 so that when the Rio+20 happens in 2012.
2012 is the 20th anniversary of the Earth Summit in Rio where an Earth Charter was originally to be adopted. Rio will host a UN Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012. Our goal is to have the Earth Scouts story told at this conference! You are invited to join the Earth Scouts in this effort!

Happy Holidays Earth Kids!

Happy Holidays to all Earth Scout Groups & Families

It has been an exciting year for the Earth Scouts with the launch of the new Earth Scouts Network. We have been working hard to help everyone orientate to the new network and all of the great features that help facilitate and support Earth Scouts everywhere.

This holiday season the Earth Scouts are invited to attend the online holiday debut of storyteller Jayátu - A Tale Feather of the Golden Eagle.

Jayátu has performed children's stories all over the country and SeThInk Media, one of the fiscal sponsors of this network, has launched an online web portal where families can now have access to the magic of Jayátu's stories.

This holiday story will be in video format on a private viewer and will go live on December 21st and be available for viewing and sharing through January 6th. Attendees will also be gifted an unpublished story 'A Tree in the Forest' audio download. You must sign up for this event to receive the link and gift.

The story is called 'The Big Jump' - you can click here to read a summary.

I remember when I was a child my grandpa used to tell stories at every Christmas gathering and as I grew up those stories took on new and deeper meanings. We hope this holiday season you can all spend time sharing your own stories with the young one's around you!

Thank You Louise!

 

We wanted to honor and thank Louise Gammons for her work and efforts as Earth Scouts coordinator!  Louise announced to us that she is having another baby and although she loves Earth Scouts and was very committed to the evolution and growth of the network she needs to take care of herself and her family during this time of family expansion!  Louise will rejoin us when the time is right for her and her family.  Congratulations Louise and we will be looking forward to your return.  

World Hunger and the Right to Food

As the spring sun warms the earth each of us may be working with our children to plant our summer gardens. Beans, peas, carrots, corn, cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, and fresh berries are but a few of the many fruits and vegetables we cultivate and enjoy in the summertime. The garden is a constant reminder of the abundance of life.

Bountiful summertime gardens also provide a perfect backdrop for our scouts to consider the problem of hunger. Hunger and poverty plague children and families around the globe. United Nation studies provide some quick facts about hunger that we should consider:

* World hunger organizations estimate that nearly 1 BILLION people around the world are chronically hungry.

* 25,000 children die every day of hunger or diseases resulting from hunger.

* Every six seconds a child dies because of hunger and related causes. (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2004)

* 65 percent of the world’s hungry live in seven countries: India, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ethiopia. (FAO, 2008)

* 36.2 million Americans, including 12.4 million children, are food insecure and at risk of hunger. (United States Department of Agriculture, 2007)

* 13 million children in the U.S. go to bed hungry. (Bread for the World, 2004)

* In the U.S. hunger and race are related. 22.4% of Black and 17.8% of Latino households experience food insecurity over the course of the year, as compared to 8.1% of White households. (Children's HealthWatch, formerly known as the Children’s Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program, 2007)

Earth Scouts facilitators have a variety of resources and curriculums that can help to organize Earth Scouts activities and service projects. First, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has put together a series of resource guides concerning world hunger.

The Right to Food: A Window on the World

This storybook is illustrated by young people for young people. Through a compilation of eight stories from around the globe, The Right to Food explains how it should be the right of every person to be free from hunger.

The Right To Food: A Window on the World Resource and Activity Guide

This activity guide helps teach young people that they are an important part of the solution to world hunger. By going through the activities, youth learn that every person deserves the right to be free from hunger. More importantly, they gain an understanding that every member of society, themselves included, must protect, defend and promote that right.

Another resource is the nonprofit organization Feeding Minds, Fighting Hunger. This global education initiative was designed to encourage teachers and youth to "actively participate in creating a world free from hunger." They have created three lessons for three levels of education: primary, intermediate, and secondary. These lessons address the following questions:

• What are hunger and malnutrition?


• Who are the hungry?


• Why is there hunger in the world?


• What can we do to end world hunger?

One resource specifically targeted for middle school and high school youth is Finding Solutions to Hunger: Kids Can Make a Difference. This guide contains 25 lessons that can be used by our facilitators "to help students answer the difficult questions dealing with hunger and poverty. The book helps students move beyond negative feelings into constructive actions that show that they can make a difference in their community, country and world. Book includes fund-raising ideas, organizations to contact, and a listing of available videos and books for use with lessons."

Here are some fantastic books and articles for our scouts that address hunger:

Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen by DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan

This story tells of Uncle Willie and his nephew who work together to feed the hungry at a local soup kitchen.

Seedfolks by Paul Fleichmann

A vacant lot is transformed into an abundant garden. Thirteen different voices tell of how this garden affected their neighborhood.

The Adventurous Chef: Alexis Soyer by Ann Arnold

This is the story of Alexis Soyer, the chef who helped establish a soup kitchen during the potato famine in Ireland.

The City That Ended Hunger by Frances Moore Lappe

Learn how the city of Belo Horizonte in Brazil solved the hunger problem. Earth Scouts will be amazed at how people can eat without the need for government programs. Be sure to check out this corresponding Visual Learning lesson plan.

If you choose to address the issue of hunger this summer, please be sure to check out the Earth Scouts Read to Feed summer service project. This program, designed by Heifer International, empowers children and youth to solve the world hunger problem. This program also provides a variety of resources to help our facilitators teach about the themes of hunger, poverty, and sustainable development. This project will allow our scouts to work together as they make a difference in the world!

The Monk's Story: Using Storytelling to Teach About Sustainable Living

One of the ways we can teach and learn about sustainable living is through the power of storytelling. There are many reasons why storytelling is such a useful tool. Stories present contemporary problems against the backdrop of another time and place. Establishing a little distance from the 'here and now' allows us to get a little perspective about our actual problem. Stories can also illicit powerful emotional responses and encourage us to act on our desires to change. Lastly, stories create an atmosphere of open communication as engaged listeners turn to one another to discuss and share their reactions.

Using The Monk's Story for Earth Scouts

The following story is set in a mountain forest village in Sri Lanka. The local monk helped this village apply principles of sustainable living in order to encourage a more peaceful, harmonious, and joyful life for the members of the community.


1. Listen to The Monk's Story.

2. After your scouts listen to the story ask them to consider the following question:

What are the six principles of sustainable living highlighted by the monk?

Harmony with nature
Doing things in a more natural way. Recycling our resources. Living and working with our environment in a sustainable way.

Quality of life
Living selfishly just for what we can get leads to misery and conflict with other people and the environment. Living selflessly to give, help and serve, leads to happiness, fulfillment and harmony with everyone and everything around us.

Self reliance
Not being dependent on other people, especially experts. Taking our own decisions, being responsible for ourselves. Participating, and doing what we feel to be the right thing.

Variety and diversity
Welcoming differences in ideas, opinions, people, etc. Respecting and valuing other people and their ideas, even though they may be different from us and our ideas. Not wishing to make things the same or uniform.

Small is beautiful
Wherever possible, organising things on a small scale gives control to ordinary people. Small groups can often get things done quickly. Large organisations are usually difficult to change, even when people's needs change.

Co-operation and peace
All around the world we see competition and aggression. People feel that they must win at something to feel good. But people can share their skills and resources. By working together co-operatively with each other and our environment, we can lead a more peaceful and satisfying life.

3. Let your scouts identify how the villagers put these principles into actions.

4. Finally, ask your scouts the following question:

Are any of these six principles relevant to sustainable living in your society?

Have your scouts make a list of one thing you, your school or community could do to follow any of the six principles in 'The Monk's Story'.


Source: Adapted from Beddes, R. and Johnson C. (eds) (1988) Only One Earth: A Multimedia Education Pack, WWF-UK, Godalming, Surrey.

Source: Adapted from UNESCO (2002) Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future

Source: Adapted from UNESCO storytelling module by John Fien, Bernard Cox and Margaret Calder using ideas, activities and material suggested by Annette Gough, Premila Kumar and John Fien in Learning for a Sustainable Environment (UNESCO - ACEID).