31 Years at Nichols - Nichols School

Students volunteer at the Community
Action Organization’s greenhouse.
Club Profile:
Eco-Schools
By Kevin Powers
It has been a remarkably productive year for Nichols’ Eco-
Schools group. We’ve spent a lot of time and energy performing
meaningful environmental service and forging strong relationships
with community organizations active
throughout Western New York. The
goal was to get off of campus, perform
community service, and to begin to make
a difference in our city and region. There’s
still a lot of work to be done, but we have
made tremendous strides this year.
Did you know that there is a
large urban farm just blocks from
the Nichols campus Several of the
photos included on these pages display
our work. Since September, many
of our most ecologically-conscious
students have spent their Thursday
afternoons and Saturday mornings
(early Saturday mornings!) performing
valuable community service at an
urban farm located on the grounds of
the Erie County Community Action
Organization’s Green Entrepreneurial
Center (CAO-GEC), located at 70
Harvard Pl., in the City of Buffalo.
Through our service, we’ve learned
about urban agriculture and organic
gardening in partnership with the CAO
staff and AmeriCorps volunteers. Eco-
School work projects have included
helping to construct a large outdoor
composting facility, replacing the roof
of one of the CAO’s three on-site
greenhouses, assisting in the installation
of a hydroponic growing bed, and
planting and harvesting chard, lettuce,
peppers and other produce – we worked, grew and harvested even
during the coldest weeks of winter!
This spring, our Eco-Schools group also worked to forge a
second off-campus connection with another local environmental
organization. On Saturday, March 9, we took part in a “toxic tour”
of Tonawanda led by the Clean Air Coalition of Western New
York. CAC Executive Director, Erin Heaney, took time out of her
busy schedule as one of our leading local environmental activists
to educate Eco-School students about the science and politics
of air quality monitoring and also about local efforts to improve
environmental and human health in the industrial neighborhoods
of our community. Our tour of Tonawanda and Buffalo’s West Side
neighborhoods was eye-opening. We
A. are looking forward to deepening our
connections through environmental
service with the Clean Air Coalition in
the coming months and into the next
school year.
We are excited to continue to build
upon these community relationships.
As a result of our community service
work, the Eco-Schools Club has already
received a $2,000 grant from the HSBC
Bank Eco-School Initiative and a $300
grant from the Sierra Club Niagara
Chapter. We are also working toward a
$500 award from the Sustainable Earth
Solutions’ Young Adult Environmental
Leadership Program. The staff at the
CAO urban farm has selected Nichols as
the lead high school in its new Students
Understanding Nutrition program. So,
in the coming year we will be deepening
our engagement with our community
partners at CAO-GEC, at the Clean
Air Coalition and elsewhere. Things are
looking up for Eco-Schools!
Questions Want to get involved
B.
Contact Eco-Schools advisor, Kevin
Powers, at kpowers@nicholsschool.org.
A. Disha Yellayi ’15 gardens during a trip to
CAO.
B. Iman Mamnoon ’16 works on one of the
raised beds at CAO.
Spring/Summer 2013
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