Come out Saturday, 9/16, from 10am to 1pm for the Green Your Home and Community Event. Learn about the Wissahickon Sustainability Council and the ongoing efforts to green our school. There will be activities for kids, a native plant sale, and more!

On Saturday, Sept. 16th, 10am-1pm the Wissahickon Sustainability Council and the Home and School Association of Cook-Wissahickon Elementary and Middle School will host “Cook Wissahickon’s Green Your Home and Community,” a community event with a native plant sale, crafts, prizes, educational activities, recycling, healthy snacks, a chance to explore our outdoor classroom, and information and feedback collection on the next phase of the school’s greening plan.  All community members and Cook-Wissahickon families are invited.  The event will be held in Cook Wissahickon’s school yard, or in the gymnasium in the case of rain.

During the past school year Cook-Wissahickon’s Green Committee (also known as the Wissahickon Sustainability Council or “WSC”) worked to improve the outdoor classroom situated in its native meadow at the front of the school building.  Funded by the Schuylkill River Restoration Fund and Councilman Jones’s office, the meadow features plants and flowers native to eastern Pennsylvania.  The purpose of the meadow is to be a unique educational resource for the school, manage storm water (thereby reducing flooding and improving Philadelphia’s drinking water), act as a natural air filter, attract wildlife, and extend the habitat of nearby Fairmount Park.  In the coming school year, we will be submitting grants to expand the amount of green spaces to other areas of the school yard.  Any funds raised at this event will go toward this project.

Our school has won numerous grants and awards for our work to create a sustainable landscape by retrofitting our school campus including the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Community Greening Award, the Schuylkill Scholastic Student Award, and a Keystone Energy Efficiency Award for environmental stewardship.  Cook’s meadow project is being featured in a new Community Design Collaborative publication and being used as a model in the Manayunk/Roxborough neighborhood.

Want more information about this event or to get involved?  Please email Mrs. Powers at teacherp103@gmail.com.  Items that we will be accepting for recycling include hard drives, electronic cables and accessories, cell phones, laptops, bar wrappers lined in silver, Entenmann’s Little Bites bags, any brand empty toothpaste or floss containers, used toothbrushes, and batteries.  We will not be accepting desktop computers or tvs.