Dear Families,
Sayéik: Gastineau Community School has some exciting news. We are happy to share that for the 5th year in a row our school was awarded the NOAA Ocean Guardian School grant to help support our garden and habitat restoration project. This will be our eighth year of officially being recognized as a NOAA Ocean Guardian School.
Ocean Guardian School Program: This grant program is managed by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries with funding coordinated by the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. The Office of National Marine Sanctuaries serves as the trustee for a network of underwater parks, including a system of 15 national marine sanctuaries and 2 marine national monuments. The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation is the national non-profit partner for the National Marine Sanctuary System.
Our School’s Project:
This year, we are working to grow our school garden as well as add a local plant trail to the school playground. In addition, Ocean Guardian Club members are helping our community reduce the use of single-use plastics while participating in beach and neighborhood cleanups and engaging in community outreach.
Your Involvement:
The Ocean Guardian School program encourages our students to talk about their ocean conservation project and the related environmental issues outside of school, to friends, family, and community members. We’re also looking for volunteers to help with phase 4 of our school garden. We’ll be sharing more about this soon.
Please do not hesitate to contact our Ocean Guardian team with any questions about our grant project. For more information about the Ocean Guardian School program, please visit http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/education/ocean_guardian/.
Thank you for your support.
Sayéik: Gastineau Ocean Guardian Team
Lead Teacher: Monika Haygood
