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CHARMAINE: This is a bicycle that has a blender attached to the back. And when I saw it, I thought, “We need to have that at our school.” Because that could really teach the kids about alternative energy. Not everything has to be coal burning electricity.
BOY: “What about solar power?”
CHARMAINE: “Solar power too! Let’s put in a little O.J. Ah, the yogurt with good bacteria for our bodies.
BOY: “Good bacteria?”
CHARMAINE: Yes! Good bacteria. Now, strawberries. Fiber, right? We all need fiber – we know why. Okay, I’ll put some in there.
BOY: “Because then if you don’t…then you…”
CHARMAINE: Well, yeah. We know why we need fiber! Okay.
Okay Sean, you might have to stand up. Blend, blend, blend!
I think the first thing teachers would think is, “Oh my gosh, where does she find the time?” It’s actually not that hard. Once you motivate the children, everything else falls in place. They actually are the energy that I feed off of. They come up with so many ideas. And if you just get a few parents, a bunch of kids, support from your administration, that’s key. So, teachers I would tell you, if you believe in it, you can make it happen, and if it’s important to the kids, they’ll make it happen.
OLDER BOY: “In other blenders, it doesn’t really blend up the ice. It kinda leaves it chunky. But in this one, since there is more power getting into it, it blends up the ice with everything else, so it makes a better smoothie.”
CHARMAINE: There was a group of children, on their own, and this has nothing to do with me, started a Green Team. Although they were my first graders two years before that, so maybe there was a little influence there. But when this group became third graders, they decided they didn’t like all the trash they saw all over the yard, and spontaneously organized themselves into what we now have as the Green Team.
OLDER BOY: “These are specifically for our environmental team here, it’s called the Green Team, there you go.”
CHARMAINE: You don’t have to be a treehugger to recycle. You don’t have to be a hippie. You don’t have to be “on the fringe” to actually do something good for the earth, and I think that’s what we’ve finally shown to our community here, is that every day, normal people, just in your life, you can actually help the earth by making some wise choices.
Well I always thought that, you know what am I going to do in my life to make a difference on this earth? When you see the destruction, when you watch the Discovery Channel, when you watch the news, when you see “An Inconvenient Truth,” you think, well, what can I really do about it? And I thought, “I’ve got twenty little people in here listening to me every day. And when I tell them – it’s even really telling them you should recycle – it’s showing them by example, and teaching them why, if you do this it’s good. I feel I’ve really done something with my life if I’ve passed that on.
Every child that I think learns about recycling or helping the earth, I think it’s hope for our planet. It’s hope for our society. It’s hope for the human race, is what it is.
KIDS: “Reduce, reuse, recycle. REPEAT! Reduce, reuse, recycle.
CHARMAINE: My name is Charmaine Colina, and iTurnedGreen by starting a recycling program and environmental group at my school.
See the episode, “Miss. Colina” at www.iturnedgreen.com. When you're there, grab the code to place the video on your website.
Copyright © 2009 Rivet Entertainment LLC
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