Environmental Education in BG

The Lite Edition

The Work

Yambol Scout Troop “Lightening Bolt” “Students for a Cleaner River Tundja” PST Community Project & Future

Projects

Yambol Scout Troop “Lightening Bolt”

• Founded in 2000 in Yambol

• Part of the St. Georgi National Scouts Association

• 20 members aging from 6 - 18 years old from Sliven and Yambol

Scouting In Bulgaria

• Three associations in Bulgaria

• Long history that precedes WWII

• No gender divisions!

• Less formal than Scouting in America

• Scouting primarily works to foster leadership skills, volunteerism, good citizenship & community service

• Useful in helping implement & outreach for environmental projects

Scouting & Environment

• Park clean ups (self organized, or as participants in community clean ups)

• Tree plantings & seed collection• Wilderness survival skills• Orienteering• General Scout crafts: knot tying, fire

building, cooking on a campfire, plant identification, light construction

• Winter survival skills• International Day of Climate Action

as organized by 350.org• National Scout Camp

And other things…

• Holiday celebrations• Clothing drives• Sports• Team building• Picnics

Students for a Cleaner River Tundja

Using donated water testing kits from the World Water Monitoring Day Organization Yambol’s Scouts and 80 students from 4 schools in 5th - 12th grade test water from 6 sites along the local river Tundja.

• Students learn about local water use & abuse;

• You provide a dedicated lesson outside the classroom to practice basic chemistry, scientific testing, and some biology and botany;

• 2 complete kits with the capacity for 100 tests (total) are donated to each school for further use;

• Test results are sent to an international database and then used to determine global water quality;

• With media coverage the project becomes a prompt for further water quality monitoring;

• Stickers & word of mouth dissemination by students and teachers further multiply the future impact.

PST Community ProjectMarked two trails

(through the town and through the park) to a waterfall 3 km outside the center of town

Used students and community members as volunteer trail markers

Future ProjectsNational Scout Camp, Shumen

August 14th - 22nd 2010

Composting Project in Local SchoolsSeptember 2010

In Closing• Formal or informal groups can be used

to a variety of environmental projects.• Find or start a local Scout Club!• Any project can include an

environmental component.• Always maximize your impact by using

media and informal networks to spread the word about local community action.

Vanessa Raymondshuggielee@gmail.com