Ecoambiente Club

Since the summer days, the Ecoambiente Club of the vocational school, Escuela Superior Vocacional Manuel Méndez Liciaga, were planning wonderful fun-filled activities for their big event in October. In the days leading up to the main event, all of the students from the school came together to help out in any way they could.

Cosmetology students reinforced their skills by providing make-up and designing outfits that represented certain birds. Similarly, the horticulture students collaborated by recycling used automobile tires. They decorated them to simulate birds and hung them in the trees of their school’s backyard. A biology teacher even gave a lesson about the native birds that surrounded them in Puerto Rico. Other students helped design a brochure to advertise the event. Clearly, everyone was excited to enjoy birds with the community.
On the day of the event, a total of around 250-500 people showed up! Several students gave brief talks about birds using the material provided by Celebrate Urban Birds in the library of their school. Participants were able to enjoy various activities around the school, such as singing songs, dressing up (using the clothing designed by the cosmetology students), and dancing, all with a focus on birds.

One of the main activities included an avian poster contest, in which participants had to draw their favorite urban bird. There were over 200 entries, amazing! The judges must have had a very difficult decision to pick only three winners. Nevertheless, all the posters were used to decorate the hallways around the library.
Another successful activity was the planting of sunflowers all around the school. The students and community came together to plant around 100 sunflowers. They learned about the necessary conditions needed to grow plants and how to choose a location that is both safe and accessible for birds. Most of all, they all learned about the importance of greening the environment.

Here are some of the entries for the contest:

The coordinator, Belkis Diaz, along with the help of students guided participants in the 10-minute Celebrate Urban Bird Observations. They went around the school trying to identify any of the native species of San Sebastián, Puerto Rico. And, it was a huge success as a total of 160 observations were done.
It is very inspiring to know that any community can come together and enjoy the nature and the birds around them. Congratulations to all the students, teachers, and everyone involved in making this event so successful!