School joins global climate campaign
Climate Quilt will travel to Copenhagen
BY JACQUELINE HLAVENKA Staff Writer
Students and faculty at Home Away From Home Academy in Aberdeen are busy coloring, drawing and painting pictures on pieces of colorful recycled fabric.

Home Away From Home Academy students Alyssa Frazier (l-r), Zora Dancy and Kaitlyn Givens design quilt patches that will become part of the Climate Quilt to be presented to world leaders at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.

Some of the fabric pieces were once old T-shirts, sleeping bags or cloth from a rocking chair.

Now, these old materials are coming together to form something brand new.

The school, located on Route 34 on the border of Holmdel and Aberdeen, is one of many across the globe participating in the first Climate Quilt Campaign, a youth initiative designed to raise environmental awareness in the community and ultimately the world.

Students at Home Away From Home designed their own "pledge patches" to be included in a historic quilt that will be presented to President Barack Obama and world leaders at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.

A student designs her own patch for the quilt on recycled material.

Patches designed by children from all over the world will be included in the final quilt.

"One of the best things about our school is that we are very involved in the community," said Carmine Visone, owner of Home Away From Home. "We use it as a teaching tool for the children. Every aspect of the community they get involved in — it's a learning experience for them. By teaching them about saving the planet, going green and teaching them at this younger age, it fully prepares them for higher level advancement."

International leaders will unveil the first "Climate Quilt" at the U.N. climate conference on Dec. 6 and the quilt will be on display through Dec. 18.

In Aberdeen, several students pledged to save water, reuse and recycle, while others doodled pictures and dreamed of a future where they can "save the butterflies" and "save the animals."

"Each school is having children create individual patches from recycled materials," said Lisa B. Kemmerer, a spokeswoman for Habitat Heroes LLC, a sponsor of the Climate Quilt Campaign. "Those are then being combined with a school quilt, which will be joined with [those from] other schools around the country and also around the world like China, New Zealand, Australia, Israel and the U.K. Home Away From Home has always been very involved in the environment and looking for new ways to teach their students about what's happening in the real world."

In preparation for the event, teachers at Home Away From Home have been discussing ways to protect the environment with their students.

Visone explained that the science and art curriculum fused for the climate quilt campaign.

"Ms. Terry, who is a first-grade science teacher, got together with the art teacher, and the two subjects came together," Visone said. "They spearheaded the project. Science was part

of this big-time, and the art aspect was a large portion, too."

The backing of the quilt is going to be made from old sleeping bags, according to Visone.

"Every single aspect of the quilt is a recycled product," he said, holding up a fabric square a student worked on. "These are old T-shirts that were cut up. Everything we have was either in our homes or in the school, and we are using it again."

Students also got a cultural lesson by designing their own "pledge patch."

"Another big part of the project was teaching the children where the quilt is going to go," Kemmerer said. "There's a little bit of geography and social studies involved. Now, it is here in the U.S.; it is traveling to Copenhagen and will go to Australia. This way, they get to see around the world, open up to other cultures and see it all come together."

After the U.N. climate summit in December, the final quilt will travel back to America and will be displayed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for Earth Day 2010.

Kemmerer said the quilt might make a stop in New York City at the U.N. Headquarters on Manhattan's East Side as well.

Susan Riley, a teacher at Home Away From Home, was busy sewing all the patches together on Oct. 27.

"Everyone has really gone above and beyond," Kemmerer said. "Ms. Susan also brought in old sleeping bags. She's recycling old sleeping bags, backing it and quilting it with the padding."

The pre-K students also contributed to the quilt.

"They all put their fingertips as leaves on the quilt, so depending on how the season was changing, some of them were snowflakes in the winter, some of them were butterflies in the summer, so that's how we developed it," said Phyllis Visone, owner and pre-K teacher. "We studied the four seasons and told the children we were protecting the planet, and how wonderful all the seasons are. We touched upon the environment, climate change, recycling and taking care of the trees."

The administration said the children are using the skills they learn in the classroom and applying them at home.

"I know one little boy said yesterday he pledged to shut off the lights when he was not using them," Kemmerer said. "They get it, and they want to live it."

Second-grader Sola Yatim said she was doing her part to help the environment and save the Earth.

"I recycle the cans I use, I put the garbage in the garbage bin and I don't use that much electricity," Yatim said. "The first square I did I pledged to reduce, reuse, recycle, and the second one I did, I pledged to take cooler, shorter showers."

Five-year-old Christian Farmer pledged to turn off electricity when he's not using it at home.

"I drew a light, me and a TV," Christian said, holding up his pledge patch. "I'm turning them off."

Carmine Visone said teaching children about the environment was tremendously important.

According to the Visones, 50 percent of student development occurs between infancy and age 6.

"Parents have called the school over the past couple of days and said how great it is that they [students] are working on a savethe planet project and going green, because they go home and discuss that with their parents," Carmine Visone said. "This way, they can implement those things in their own house."

The school has taken initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint by recycling, using biodegradable cleansers and sending out notifications through email and the Internet rather than paper copies.

"We are trying to incorporate all the facets of the program with the campaign right about now," Carmine Visone said. "And the kids have so much fun doing this."

Children from infancy through second grade attend the Home Away From Home Academy, a private school whose mission is to provide a strong early-childhood education foundation.

Children in every country and city throughout the world can get involved through their schools or individually to have their pledge patch included in the quilt by visiting the website www.climatequilt.org.