PITT COUNTY RECOGNIZED
FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CENTER

The unique and productive partnership between Pitt County’s Soil and Water Conservation District, the Bray Hollow Conservancy, and A Time for Science earned a 2010 Annual Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties (NACo).  This award acknowledges the inventive program that has been developed among these organizations to serve environmental and science education as well as environmental protection.

Begun in 1970, the NACo’s Annual Achievement Award Program recognizes innovative county government programs.  Awards are given in a number of program categories such as arts and historic preservation, children and youth, community and economic development, jails-corrections, county administration, emergency management, environmental protection, health, human services, libraries, parks and recreation, transportation and volunteers.

The introduction to the award description reads as follows: “Conservation is not a new initiative in Pitt County, North Carolina, but in today’s evolving community it has become more important than ever.  Environmental education is a priority for the County of Pitt, because education is the key to conservation.  Getting citizens outside and exposing them to hands-on activities is a great way to stimulate interest in environmental awareness and that is the objective of our Environmental Education Center.  Pitt County and A Time for Science formed a collaboration of specialized professionals, to offer outreach education about the protection and conservation of our natural resources.  Whether the students are young or old, we aim to make a difference in the way our citizens take care of our local resources.  The Education Center is comprised of two hundred plus acres providing a platform to fuel the interest of visitors to learn more about the environment.  With four ponds, intersecting creeks, wetlands, acres of forest, walking trails, and roaming wildlife, we have numerous education subjects at our finger tips.  This setting offers a prime resource to anyone who is interested in learning more about the environment, the things we do to affect it, and the steps we can take to protect it.”  The detailed submission can be found here.

The National Association of Counties (NACo) is the only national organization that represents county governments in the United States.  Founded in 1935, NACo provides essential services to the nation’s 3,068 counties.  NACo advances issues with a unified voice before the federal government, improves the public’s understanding of county government, assists counties in finding and sharing innovative solutions through education and research, and provides value-added services to save counties and taxpayers money.   NACo’s membership totals more than 2,000 counties, representing over 80 percent of the nation’s population.

You all may remember April’s 5-K Fun Run for our partners at Love a Sea Turtle (L.A.S.T.).  Well, in light of the tremendous oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico the folks at L.A.S.T., in conjunction with Oceans4Ever, are again planning, baking (and, of course, sampling – ain’t nothin’ like cookie dough) in an effort to raise money for the wild-life rescue and clean-up activities going on around the Gulf.

Without further adieu, we are announcing in partnership with our friends at L.A.S.T., a culinary – and an ocean conservation – event like no other.  The Great Bake for Oceans’ Sake is here. Super-surprised by the name?  We thought you would be. We’re putting on our aprons, wielding our rolling pins, and rolling out a coast-to-coast, simultaneous bake sale on July 9th, National Sugar Cookie Day, to raise money for the Gulf marine life affected by the oil spill.

And we want YOU to join us! Get your family and friends, your Girl Scout troop, your church or office, bake up some ocean-inspired sugar cookies and/or other baked goods, and host a bake sale. OR, head out around your area and encourage your favorite restaurant or bakery to participate by baking and selling said confections and donating proceeds.

July 9, National Sugar Cookie Day, is only the official kick-off.  We are baking throughout the month of July.  Hold a BAKE when you can, and make sure you visit the BAKE website and register your BAKE or area eatery’s cookie sale. We’ll also hook you up with the best sugar cookie recipe, ever, a complete tool kit with printable fliers, a donation form, and tips for holding and getting the word out about your own BAKE – and of course, we’ll have BAKE swag for sale in the Bake Shop.

BAKE sale proceeds will go to the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies.  Keep checking back at these various websites for further information!  Thanks, and LET’S GO BAKE!?

The next Saturday Family Fun Day will take place on July 10.  During this event, the art/craft that will be constructed is a Nature Fan.  For more information and registration, see our SFFD page here.  To see what we did last time, check out the June SFFD report.

The morning of June 23 students and parents from the First Presbyterian Church of Greenville came out to the ATFS Learning Center to explore several features of “WATER”, one of the themes for their Vacation Bible School.  After a brief introduction to the Center and its facilities, participants, aided by internet programs estimated just how much water they typically used in a day’s time.  Guided by Nancy Bray they walked to the well near the ATFS Garden to pump a very small portion of their daily water usage.  They then had an opportunity to carry it back to the Center.  Thus they discovered the difficulty many people in the Developing World have in obtaining their daily water needs and the true value of the easy availability of clean water we have in our society.

Leah Connell guided the participants in exploring the near-shore environment around one of one of the ponds on the Bray Hollow Nature Conservancy for smaller forms of life that depend on the availability of habitable water.  These hand-on activities were able to make a deeper impression on the participants of the importance and value of water to all living creatures.

Finally, before leaving, everyone was able to get “up close and personal” with the nose-wheel tire that went into space and back on the Space Shuttle Endeavour, Mission STS-113.  This historic item is on loan from NASA and the Eastern NC Regional Science Center, Inc. (DBA Go-Science).

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First Presbyterian Vacation Bible School

A warm (really a hot) evening, a clear sky, newly-minted telescopes, and an artifact from NASA’s Space Shuttle Mission-113 brought interested individuals and families to the A Time for Science Learning  Center and the Bray Hollow Nature Conservancy for the first annual Summer Solstice Party.  Thanks to the assistance from student volunteers from DH Conley High School, St. Gabriel’s Youth Group and elsewhere, this Solstice Party offered some heavenly sights and interesting experiences for all.  Although a bright moon and a partly cloudy sky precluded the planned sky show, lunar and planetary viewings were excellent.  Many of Pitt Community College’s newly-minted (AST-251) astronomers were able to show off their creations to large group of interested audience.

One highlight of the evening was the nose wheel nose-wheel tire that went into space and back on the Space Shuttle Endeavour, Mission STS-113.  Visitors were able to touch, feel and explore many aspects of this tire which is on loan from NASA and the Eastern NC Regional Science Center, Inc. (DBA Go-Science).  Answers to questions about the tire, posed to our “Tire Hostess,” will, in time, be posted here at the website.

Two reminders for all: 1.) The Shuttle tire will remain for several more months at the ATFS Center for all visitors to see. And 2.) Be sure to mark your calendars and save the date for our Fall Equinox Party in three more months.

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Summer Solstice 2010

Last Saturday, June 19, another group of “inquiring minds,” spanning a 60 decade age range, assembled for another of the now “famous” AST-251 Astronomy Telescope Making Workshops at PCC.  The day was spent in fun building a Dobsonian mount, Newtonian reflector scope.  The evening was also spent in fun making all of the appropriate adjustments and viewing the heavens at “First Light” for these new creations.  Though the scopes were constructed from seemingly humble materials there was some very high-tech assistance afforded the night-time viewing.

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Telescope Making Workshop – June 19