Carmel Green Teen Micro-Grant Program
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    • 2018 Projects >
      • Helping Ninjas Help Pollinators
      • Helping Ninjas Help Garden and Compost
      • This is NOT a Plastic Bag
    • 2017 Projects >
      • UHS Bat Boxes
      • Don'f Flip It, Save It! - Water Bottles
      • River Road Habitat Restoration
    • 2016 Projects >
      • It's in the Reusable Bag
      • Plots to Plates Gardens Tour
      • Millbrook Nature Trail
      • UHS Poultry Project
      • Green Cubs Tree Planting
      • OLMC Tree Replacement
      • Woodbrook Butterfly Garden
      • Turn Up for Compost
    • 2015 Projects >
      • OPE Recycling Cubs
      • Goodbye Plastics 2
      • UHS Monarch Waystation
      • UHS Hydration Station
      • CHS Earth Fair
      • CHS NHS Event Recycling
    • 2014 Projects >
      • Girl Scout Teaches Conservation
      • Carmel Pollinator Garden
      • Trees For Future Generations
      • CHS TEDx Conference
      • UHS Campus Green Up
    • 2013 Projects >
      • CHS Teaches Conservation
      • Bug Repellent Daisies
      • Kids Against Crayon Waste- Crayon Recycling
      • UHS Community Garden
      • A Greener College Wood
      • Do Something Trees
      • No Crayon Left Behind
      • Prairie Trace Trees
      • Goodbye Plastics
      • Carmel Green Trees
      • CHS Recycled Arts Garden
      • Going Green at the CLC
    • 2012 Projects >
      • UHS Tree Hugging Trailblazers
      • Girl Scouts Bikeyard 100
      • Bat Boxes- Nature's Bug Zappers
      • CHS Green Shower Power
    • 2011 Projects >
      • Mission Recycle
      • Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
      • Recycling at CHS
      • A Greener Tomorrow is in the Bag
      • Fishing Line Recycling
    • 2010 Projects >
      • MOSAICS Family Garden
      • Coolers are Cooler with Cups
      • Ban the Bottle, Try the Tap
      • Butterfly Reintroduction Carey Grove Park
      • Butterfly Reintroduction Clay Middle School
      • River Trail Wildflower Reintroduction
      • Tree Scouts
    • 2009 Projects >
      • Scouts' Reusable Shopping Bags
      • St. Christopher's Garden
      • Earth Day Tree Seedling Giveaway
      • CHS Green Lights Club

Helping Ninjas Help garden and compost 2018

Helping Ninjas and College Wood Elementary Green Team
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The Helping Ninjas and the College Wood Elementary School student Green Team groups wanted to learn and teach about local organic gardening and composting. The students worked with the school cafeteria manager to start composting cafeteria scraps, they started a school worm composting bin, and they taught other students how to compost. Students planted vegetable plants in a community plot at the CCS Plots to Plates Community Gardens and donated the food to their school cafeteria and Second Helpings. They also educated their classmates on ways to go green using new bulletin boards.
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The Helping Ninjas started the composting part of their project with a healthy snack. They learned which parts of the waste from the snacks were the compostable. They also learned how they could limit and compost waste from every meal they ate. To learn how and what to compost, visit the EPA website here.
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Helping Ninjas also demonstrated how to compost at home with the green team students. The Helping Ninjas donated the supplies for the project as well as the mason jars for students to take home. All participating students were urged to experiment with composting over the summer by using the provided jars.


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In addition to learning and teaching how to compost, the students learned how to grow their own organic food at the CCS Plots to Plates Organic Community Gardens. Students and their families started by preparing the garden plots.
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The Helping Ninjas were so very excited to start harvest the food from the plants they started and cultivated all summer long. Learning about the importance of pollinators, healthy soil, organic fertilizers, composting, water conservation, recycling,  protecting nature, and caring for others is what being a Helping Ninja is all about.
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The Helping Ninjas visited the student Green Team at Prairie Trace Elementary School and helped teach other students about composting. They provided mini-composting jars to each student. The Helping Ninjas also provided this program along for over 120 students at the ESC after school program at College Wood Elementary school.
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In addition to teaching about hands-on composting through the use of their jars, the Helping Ninjas also collected school cafeteria scraps for use in their school compost bin. Students worked with Castaway Compost in Noblesville to learn about and obtain a worm composting bin, which traveled from home to home with the student Ninjas. Composting using worms is called vermicomposting, and it is fast and easy to learn.

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Students and their families worked hard all summer long to plant, pull weeds, and water their garden plots. They were also able to use some of their compost they made from cafeteria waste on their garden plots!
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Eating nutritious, fresh foods that are plant based is important. Learning about foods and their super powers shows us that science is cool.
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In addition to delivering baskets of fresh, local, organic produce to the their school's cafeteria for the students to enjoy, the Helping Ninjas also offered baskets of food to school administrators. Even more food was donated to Second Helpings, a local non-profit which provides meals to those in need. Well done, Ninjas!
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To finish off their Carmel Green Teen project, the Helping NInjas installed two new bulletin boards in their school. Students will use the boards to teach about reducing, reusing, recycling, and so many other ways that students, no matter how young, can work together to help our planet. To learn more about the Helping Ninjas, visit their website here.

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