Gulf Coast Bay Buddy: Conservation for Grades K-3

It has been a busy fall for the Alabama Coastal Foundation and we wanted to take a few moments to update you on how your generous contribution is being utilized.

The Bay Buddy Program is in full swing for the 2009-2010 school year. ACF staff visited Castlen Elementary second grade students on October 14th, teaching basic conservation principles to over 100 students. Castlen Elementary is located in Grand Bay, so students were very familiar with recreational uses of waterways and excited about keeping them healthy. The school also has a recycling program, which students loved to talk about. They had wonderful suggestions on things to keep out of the drain, such as markers and toys- we suspect someone had to learn that lesson the hard way! Upcoming presentations at Dodge Elementary, Council Traditional School, and Eichold-Mertz are scheduled throughout November. This will bring the total number of students participating in 2009 Spring and fall to 1,600! Wow! We couldn’t have done it without you!

What’s next for Bay Buddy? We are almost out of activity booklets- can you believe we’ve had over 2,900 students participate in Bay Buddy over the past 2 years alone? We are currently working with teachers to update the program materials and booklets in time to roll out in Spring 2010. The new program updates will include: -Characters based on specific local species -Pre-and post-visit materials such as info on how to start a recycling program at home or school; species information and project ideas; and evaluation materials to measure impact. -A new and improved activity book and presentation featuring sound and eventually animation. Our future goals include developing a completely web-based program to be distributed Gulf-wide. Ambitious? Perhaps! But with your support, we are continuing to make a difference in South Alabama. Stay tuned for future updates!