EW Wins King County Earth Hero Award

Explorer West has earned yet another award, winning in the "program" category of King County Earth Hero for our Sustainability Initiative! On April 19 Ben, Kristin, and Aurora will attend a dinner with the other honorees to receive the award from King County Executive Ron Sims.

Interestingly enough, we received notice of this award just as EW officially named Evan Hundley as the choice for head of school, and as the first leaves are sprouting on the 20 young campus trees planted in the fall. This also occurs just as King County sprouted Dr. Martin Luther King's image as it official logo. Seems to be a season of blossoming in many ways.
In brief, our Sustainability Initiative "was selected for its impact on student learning and action on behalf of the environment" and for "doing exceptional work to protect natural resources." As in the case of the recent NAIS Leading Edge Award for Environmental Sustainability, the Earth Hero award acknowledges EW's multi-pronged approach, where we are addressing academic curriculum, green campus, and service learning aspects of sustainability. Notably, EW has done this by relying on the the earnest creative efforts of its human resources, rather than on money.

The Sustainability Initiative at Explorer West is entirely “home grown” on the enthusiasm and dedication of its students, teachers, and parents. What we have found is that the Sustainability Initiative has enriched the quality of curriculum and school life immensely, giving us the confidence and know-how to take the message of sustainability out of the classroom and into our families and communities.

In addition to increasing integration of EW curriculum around sustainability, the Earth Heroes award acknowledges the importance of elements of our program that support environmental sustainability, including Green Campus Advisories, Outdoor Education, Service Projects, and the annual Sustainability Festival. The Sustainability Initiative at EW is an on-going process, just as sustainability itself is a work in progress -- not a finished product. The future success of this initiative depends on the collaboration of students, teachers, and community partners.

The entire EW community deserves congratulations and thanks for supporting the Sustainability Initiative. We are confident that it will continue to bear fruit.