Medford Teacher, Parent Honored with ‘Green’ Awards
Audrey Carmosino (left) and Christine Ellersick (right) with reusable BPA-free water bottles sold as a fundraiser for the Medford High School Roots & Shoots group. The Roots & Shoots members educated their peers about the benefits of tap water over bottled water. Courtesy photo.
Medford Residents and Leaders with Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots Receive Green Difference Awards
Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots is proud to announce that Christine Ellersick and Audrey Carmosino have been honored by greenschools with “Green Difference Awards†as Green Activist of the Year and Green Teacher of the Year, respectively. The award ceremony took place on May 23, 2011, at Marshfield High School in Medford, Mass.
Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots is the Jane Goodall Institute’s global environmental and humanitarian program for young people from preschool through university and beyond. Ms. Ellersick is a group leader, former Roots & Shoots Northeast regional manager, and currently works as a consultant for the program. Ms. Carmosino has been teaching science for 12 years at Medford High School (MHS) and is the group leader of the MHS Roots & Shoots group. MHS was honored as Roots & Shoots-USA Group of the Month in January 2011.
“Christine and Audrey are outstanding mentors to our Roots & Shoots youth members,†said Kellan Hays, Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots Northeast program coordinator. “They understand that youth leadership and service learning allow students to make a difference today, and to become tomorrow’s local and global environmental leaders. Together, they have inspired countless Roots & Shoots and greenschools members, and we are truly fortunate to work with both of them.â€
About Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots
Founded in 1991 by Dr. Jane Goodall and a group of Tanzanian students, the Roots & Shoots program is about making positive change happen—for our communities, for animals and for the environment. With hundreds of thousands of young people in more than 120 countries, the Roots & Shoots network connects youth of all ages who share a desire to create a better world. Young people identify problems in their communities and take action. Through service projects, youth?led campaigns and an interactive website, Roots & Shoots members are making a difference across the globe. For more information, please visit www.rootsandshoots.org.
About greenschools
Greenschools is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping and supporting those involved in the school community or in other areas of learning to create healthier/“greener†learning environments through education and awareness. Greenschools is based in Massachusetts and specifically addresses issues relating to: Indoor Air Quality; Healthy Food and Habits/Nutrition; and The 3Rs: Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling. Learn more at www.projectgreenschools.org.
About Christine Ellersick
Christine Ellersick is the former Northeast regional program manager for Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots. While with Roots & Shoots, she spearheaded the “Peace Through the Arts†regional campaign, which enabled young people to express their wishes for peace within society, with animals and with the environment through music and the visual arts.
Currently, Christine works as a Roots & Shoots consultant. In this capacity, she trains and mentors educators in New York City about best practices for bringing environmental service-learning projects into their classrooms. She is also the outreach and development coordinator for greenschools, where she supports and mentors their middle and high school ambassadors.
As a volunteer, she is co-founder of Green Medford; a member of the steering committee of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network; and an active supporter of the Oxfam Action Corps of Boston. She is a past member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 1 Mystic River Steering Committee, and has successfully campaigned for local Medford families to do free home energy audits in order to reduce their carbon footprint.
About Audrey Carmosino
Audrey Carmosino has been teaching for 12 years at Medford High School (MHS). In that time, she helped grow the school’s paper recycling program and later turned the school’s recycling system to single-stream. She also started the first official Medford High School Earth Week, which is now an annual celebration.
As group leader of the MHS Roots & Shoots group since 2006, she has helped raise thousands of dollars for environmental nonprofits through creative and youth-led fundraising projects. For the past two years, her group’s members have been invited to run fundraising trainings at the annual Roots & Shoots Northeast Regional Summit.
Her Roots & Shoots group members, as well as the students in her classes, collaborate with other school clubs on their projects. With the MHSArt Club, they created a “Messages of Hope for Haiti†quilt for children in Haiti. Last year, they were honored as one of the top five most active groups in the Northeast at the 2010 Roots & Shoot Northeast Regional Summit.
– Information from Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots