As I reflect about the impact the Cottonwood Institute had this past year, I am delighted to see our impact surge in 2011. We do a lot more that just connect kids to the outdoors. In the words of one of our instructors Madeline Bachner, “Our courses are centered around cultivating direct action for positive… Read more »
On Friday October 7th, the members of Earth Task Force (ETF) headed up into the mountains for a fall retreat at The Highlands Camp and Retreat Center in Allenspark, Colorado. The trip was planned and facilitated by students and ETF mentors with borrowed gear and organizational help from The Cottonwood Institute to help them pursue… Read more »
UPDATE – Breaking News – The Earth Task Force has WON the 2011 Center for Resource Conservation’s Youth Conservation ReWard! Congratulations goes out to ETF on a ReWard well deserved! Keep up the strong work! ### Congratulations! The Earth Task Force’s Board of Super Heroes (BOSH) was chosen as a finalist for the Center for… Read more »
Last February, Earth Task Force (ETF) students and staff, co-wrote a grant application for the National Environmental Education Foundation’s (NEEF) Green Prize Award. The Green Prize is a national contest for schools across the country with a prize of $10,000 to help fund the winning schools’ sustainability efforts. In 2011, over 100 schools from around… Read more »
When anybody in Boulder litters, sooner or later it ends up in the creek and river system. Not only does this destroy diverse creek ecosystems, but it also contaminates the water. Contamination is the last thing the river system needs because much of the water in Colorado runs off into the rest of the country,… Read more »
On September 8th, 2011, the Alliance for Climate Education (ACE) visited New Vista High School (NVHS) for a very special annual treat. Amy Atkins, a senior educator for ACE, with the help of the Earth Task Force (ETF), presented an interactive video with a mission to educate and inspire students to battle climate change. … Read more »
New Vista High School’s Earth Task Force (or ETF), held a successful (and delicious!) second annual Local Lunch on May 6th, 2011. This special event, put on for New Vista’s 300 students, had been planned for months and turned out to be great! ETF collaborated with the staff at The Kitchen Restaurant to create an… Read more »
Prom is a tradition known around our nation and celebrated by high school students of every caliber. Often times, high school students buy a brand new outfit for every prom they attend. According to Annie Leonard, voice and face behind “The Story of Stuff“, only 1% of the “stuff” Americans buy is still in use… Read more »
“iMatter, You Matter, We Matter. Let’s work together to make things better” Two thousand Colorado youth and their adult allies sang this chant through downtown Denver this past Saturday, May 14, 2011 as part of the worldwide iMatter marches organized by Alec Loorz, founder of Kids vs. Global Warming. “The atmosphere created by this group… Read more »
The final donations are still trickling in, but we are ready to declare the 2011 Base Camp Bash a smashing success. Because of our generous supporters, we were able to raise just shy of $44,000 to help support our 2011 programs to connect diverse youth to the outdoors. This represents close to a 110% increase… Read more »
