JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, S.C. –
Joint Base Charleston hosted approximately 700 fifth-grade elementary students from Charleston area elementary schools for its annual Earth Day Celebration here March 24.
Charleston AFB traditionally celebrates Arbor Day in conjunction with its annual Earth Day event held each spring. At Joint Base Charleston, a concerted effort is made to implement the principles of tree management during the design phase of all construction projects, thereby making the best use of our natural available resources. As a testament to this effort, Joint Base Charleston has received the Tree City USA award from the National Arbor Day Foundation for 15 out of the past 16 years.
"Our earth day is done approximately one month early here on base to avoid conflicts with other celebrations," explained Keith Thompson, 628th Civil Engineer Squadron conservation program manager. "This way we have a better chance of getting participation from agencies that may be otherwise committed to activities on the real Earth Day."
This year's celebrations began with the base honor guard posting the colors, followed by the children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Shortly after the posting of the colors Col. Martha Meeker, 628th Air Base Wing commander, gave her opening comments and explained to the children what she hoped would happen throughout the day.
"I love mother nature," Col. Meeker explained. "So, if you want to walk around, to get as smart as you can and learn as much as you can, I would appreciate it. I want your help in going out to take care of Mother Nature and learning how to do that in a fabulous way."
Following the opening comments, the children broke off into their groups to visit twenty-seven presentations. Children visited each booth for increments of ten minutes until a horn sounded off, signaling it was time to move on to the next sponsor.
Throughout the day, children had the opportunity to enjoy presentations from the 628th Civil Engineer Squadron fire company, Charleston Exotic Bird Society, National Audubon Society, Joint Base Charleston Entomology and many other environmental consultants, as well as private organizations.
The children learned about things ranging from rodents to snakes to birds, as well as types of energy conservation, renewable energy, and the geological time scale.
One of the highlights of the day for local area students was being able to plant an Eastern redbud tree alongside the base commander to help support Joint Base Charleston maintain their ecological balance on the installation.
It is very important for children to have environmental awareness, for the reason of diminishing natural resources and increasing population, said Mr. Thompson.
"The children have to learn how to conserve the environment," explained Mr. Thompson. "We want to create a greater awareness within the children. We can do this through essay contests, poster contests and through the actual exhibits. This gets them to think about the environment and possibly going into environmental careers. It also gets the children to think about what they can do at their level, while either at home or at their schools."
Joint Base Charleston hosts this Earth Day celebration every year in order to partner with the local community and demonstrate to the visitors how the base is dedicated to protected and preserving the environment, explained Mr. Thompson.
"The only way to make a difference in protecting the environment is to get to the children when they are young and educate them on how they can make a difference," said Mr. Thompson. "We want to show them how they can adapt to green processes and green products, which in return they can go back and educate their parents.
The Earth Day celebration gives Joint Base Charleston an opportunity to give something back to the community, to the kids, in the form of environmental awareness education.
"Having the opportunity to bring the children here to a beautiful location on the picnic grounds, allowing us to go out and get sponsor's to come here and educate them, and allowing my individuals to organize this on behalf of the community, allows us to take pride in giving back to our community," said Colonel Meeker. "It is the very least we can do."