ECHO Center FREE Community Science Night

ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center Invites You to Community Science Night At ECHO!

FREE Admission
FREE Transportation from Barnes starting at 5:15pm
FREE Community Style Dinner
Activities and Games
Exhibit Explortation

March 19th, 2008
5:30-8:00pm

RSVP as soon as possible to Elana at 803-540-0057 or edyer@shelburnefarms.org
Limited space available.

Pancake Breakfast Raises over $1000

The first annual Barnes Pancake Breakfast packed the school gym and raised over $1000 for sustainability programs at Barnes this morning.



The crowd was entertained by live music, including Dawna and the Dreamers (featuring Barnes kids) ...



... and the Cranky Show





More photos available at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/linniem/PancakeBreakfast

and

http://picasaweb.google.com/uekissam/PancakeBreakfast

Pancake Breakfast, Saturday, November 10

Pancakes, Pancakes, Pancakes?
Who doesn't love pancakes?!
(Especially when they're made by somebody else...)

The Lawrence Barnes School PTO invites you to a Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser to be held in the Barnes cafeteria from 8:30 - 11:00 am on Saturday, November, 10th, 2007. The meal served will include homemade pancakes, local syrup and butter, as well as hot and cold beverages. Suggested donation: $6.00 adults and $3.00 children. Come to connect with friends and enjoy the live music!

All proceeds raised will support PTO initiatives as Barnes transitions towards becoming a more sustainable school. These initiatives include field trips, the school-wide promotion of principles of sustainability, as well as related enrichment projects, and community events pertaining to the arts, music, health & wellness, and literacy.

Please join us in supporting Barnes!

Contact Linnie Miller for general information: linniem@gmail.com
Phone 658-0442

Contact Barb Prine if you'd like to volunteer: paulandbarb@verizon.net
Phone 864-5587

Reverse-Trick-or-Treating: Lawrence Barnes Kids Give Back on Halloween to Their Neighborhoods and the World

This Halloween, the Lawrence Barnes PTO is partnering with international human-rights advocacy group Global Exchange to educate our community about Fair Trade in the cocoa industry.

Lawrence Barnes students will join thousands of children across the US in "reverse trick-or-treating," giving samples of Fair Trade Certified™ dark chocolate to the houses they trick or treat. Fair Trade, denoted by the "Fair Trade Certified" label, is a monitoring and certification process that guarantees a minimum price per pound for cocoa. Fair Trade prohibits forced or abusive child labor, enables farmers to earn enough to meet their families' basic needs, such as health care, education, and nutrition, and requires sustainable farming practices, which protect the environment.

More information about this activity is available at www.reversetrickortreating.org.

From this week's Seven Days

Meet the parents who are buying into the Old North End's schools features Barnes parents Barb Prine, Heather Riemer and Adoul Methiang.

Community meeting on National School Lunch Program September 17

The Lawrence Barnes School PTO invites you to a community meeting to discuss the Farm Bill (and its impact on school food) with John Tracy, Field Representative for Senator Patrick Leahy's Office.

DATE: Monday, September 17, 2007
TIME: 6:00 pm
PLACE: Lawrence Barnes School Community Room

In late September or early October, the Farm Bill will be debated and voted on in the Senate. Senator Leahy's vote is critical to improving the nutritional health of all Americans, strengthening the food assistance programs, and developing farm and food policy that promotes healthy eating.

We hope to convey to the Senator that Vermonters want food assistance programs (like the National School Lunch Program - NSLP) to provide foods that ultimately promote good health and prevent disease. Greater representation of (and therefore increased federal funding for) fruits, vegetables and whole grains should be the NSLP's absolute top priority.

Why should we care?

The foods served on our children's school lunch trays are enormously affected by the Farm Bill. Under current legislation, fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods receive less than 1 percent of government subsidies, in spite of ample nutrition research demonstrating that these foods are vital for lifelong health promotion.

Children across the US (as well as across Vermont) simply do not consume enough fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and yet we know these foods are key in preventing long-term chronic disease. While meat and full-fat dairy products have continued to be heavily subsidized and provided in school lunches nationwide, we have witnessed a skyrocketing increase in diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and other diet-related illnesses, often starting at a younger and younger age. Serving truly health promoting foods through the NSLP would make a HUGE difference in countering this trend.

Please join us for this important opportunity to share our concerns.

You need not be an expert on the Farm Bill to attend. Feel free to come and just "listen and learn." Simply showing up will demonstrate that the issue is important to you as a Vermonter. There definitely is "strength in numbers," so if we do have a strong showing we can better ensure that our message will be solidly conveyed back to Senator Leahy, and that hopefully his vote (and others) will result in improved nutrition for Vermont children and families.

Barnes Beautification Project, Day 2

On day 2 of the Beautification project, gardening took center stage. Focusing on the "reuse" part of "reduce, reuse, recycle," we made a small terraced garden in one corner of the grounds using bricks and rocks from the pile of debris from Burlington Telecom putting in a transfer station:


The mural project continues to get filled in as well:


And, of course, the bobcat continues its work getting ready for the delivery of woodchips tomorrow:

Barnes Beautification Project, Day 1

In the spring of 2006, the kids at Barnes presented the PTO with a petition asking us to replace the pea stone under the play equipment in the front playground with something less abrasive. This summer, with support from Lowe's, CEDO and Alderson Environmental Contractor, we have taken this on as part of our summer beautification project, using all-volunteer labor. In addition to re-surfacing the front playground, we are increasing our garden space and muralizing the back entrance.

Thanks to the generous loan of a bobcat from Alderson Environmental Contractor, removing the pea stone from the playground won't be quite as labor-intensive as it would be by hand:


Our resident parent-artists Rebecca Hartwick and Maria Chomentowski are designing and organizing the painting of murals on the columns and ceiling of the back entrance to the school, with a sustainability theme:



(those are windmills, painted by one of the non-artist parent volunteers)

Of course, it wasn't all work, and there's nothing like working while surrounded by playing children: