Last week I had the privilege of being a guest volunteer with the Savanna’s Nature Preserve Education Center, an award-winning national park on the east coast of Florida. The Center had been invited to do a presentation on “decomposition” at the children at the Village Green Environmental Studies School in Port St. Lucie for the entire class of fifth graders, a total of 80 children in all with about 40 children in each of two groups.

The presentation consisted of a PowerPoint presentation on recycling in nature. Then we proceeded to an outdoor classroom, with cinderblock seats in a small clearing. There, I read my book on compost, “The Compost Heroes,” which became a catalyst for the discussion of some of the why’s and how’s of composting.

As a Master Composter-to-be (I am working on completing my volunteer hours in NYC for the Master Composter Certification course offered by the NYC Department of Sanitation), I offered to help the Savanna’s Nature Preserve Educational Center set up their compost system. Tessa Sheridan, the Center’s Director, had initiated the compost project and had purchased an indoor vermin-composting bin. I offered to enlist the children’s help and have them help set up the center’s bin, which they did with great enthusiasm.

The kids shredded the “compost Greens” (newspaper and some dry leaves from the surrounding area), and moistened the bedding (we spritzed water on the bedding and they tossed it like a big salad). We had a lot of fun identifying some of the food scraps I had brought in (the “mystery scrap” was a wad of lint from the clothes dryer). There is a world of difference between hearing about composting and actually seeing a banana peel put in a compost bin. I am sure the experience made an indelible impression upon the children.

It will be a source of pride for the children to know they had a part in creating the indoor composting system at the Savanna’s Nature Preserve Educational Center, and I hope that they will stay in touch with its progress. We did not have the worms with us at our presentation, and the children were invited to the Center the following week to help add the worms to their new home. One of the children asked the Center bring the bin back to the school for a follow-up session, which we all thought was a marvelous idea.

I wrote my The Compost Heroes as a final project for the Master Composting Certification course, and it was a thrill to see it at work, doing what I hoped it would do: inspiring children and teaching about compost. You can learn more about the book, and events in the NY, NJ and Florida area at http://www.CompostHeroes.com, and you are invited to join me as, together, we create our own indoor vermin-composting bins at http://www.CompostHeroes.com/blog.

Last week I had the privilege of being a guest volunteer with the Savanna’s Nature Preserve Education Center, an award-winning national park on the east coast of Florida. The Center had been invited to do a presentation on “decomposition” at the children at the Village Green Environmental Studies School in Port St. Lucie for the entire class of fifth graders, a total of 80 children in all with about 40 children in each of two groups.

The presentation consisted of a PowerPoint presentation on recycling in nature. Then we proceeded to an outdoor classroom, with cinderblock seats in a small clearing. There, I read my book on compost, “The Compost Heroes,” which became a catalyst for the discussion of some of the why’s and how’s of composting.

As a Master Composter-to-be (I am working on completing my volunteer hours in NYC for the Master Composter Certification course offered by the NYC Department of Sanitation), I offered to help the Savanna’s Nature Preserve Educational Center set up their compost system. Tessa Sheridan, the Center’s Director, had initiated the compost project and had purchased an indoor vermin-composting bin. I offered to enlist the children’s help and have them help set up the center’s bin, which they did with great enthusiasm.

The kids shredded the “compost Greens” (newspaper and some dry leaves from the surrounding area), and moistened the bedding (we spritzed water on the bedding and they tossed it like a big salad). We had a lot of fun identifying some of the food scraps I had brought in (the “mystery scrap” was a wad of lint from the clothes dryer). There is a world of difference between hearing about composting and actually seeing a banana peel put in a compost bin. I am sure the experience made an indelible impression upon the children.

It will be a source of pride for the children to know they had a part in creating the indoor composting system at the Savanna’s Nature Preserve Educational Center, and I hope that they will stay in touch with its progress. We did not have the worms with us at our presentation, and the children were invited to the Center the following week to help add the worms to their new home. One of the children asked the Center bring the bin back to the school for a follow-up session, which we all thought was a marvelous idea.

I wrote my The Compost Heroes as a final project for the Master Composting Certification course, and it was a thrill to see it at work, doing what I hoped it would do: inspiring children and teaching about compost. You can learn more about the book, and events in the NY, NJ and Florida area at http://www.CompostHeroes.com, and you are invited to join me as, together, we create our own indoor vermin-composting bins at http://www.CompostHeroes.com/blog.