Nicodemus Wilderness Project -- Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists

Hawaii-- it's paradise and it's home. Hawaii is portrayed as the island with romantic sunset beaches, raving waves concaving off the North Shore, comfortable weather and abundant diversity. However, what advertisers and tourist guides and University college packets fail to showcase is the increasing environmental disruption that occurs unseen. On this island as with other Hawaii islands, piles of trash are littered throughout the beaches. Not only do these littered piles strip Hawaii of it's "sunset view" value, but it also endangers many of our wildlife and sea animals.

After participating in a science club event at Hawaii Nature Center, and viewing pictures of sea bird stomachs filled with litter, it hit me that many of our youth do not have access to this type of environmental education. And after recalling my own youth, I have never received an extensive environmental education from the public schools I attended. This is what prompted me to alter the mission of the Craft for Care Club that I formed in May.

The Craft for Care Club serves to help the local community of Oahu but is open and is easily accessible to the general public through our website and Instagram. Initially the club was started to gather fellow artists and crafters to craft cards that would be sent to hospital patients or sold to start a fundraiser. After contacting hospitals and craft fairs, however, there were various setbacks to this original mission. With these setbacks and with the environmental education I received through the Hawaii Nature Center, I altered the overall mission so that the club supports and implements environmental education within our posts and events.

In July of this year, we hosted our very first event. This event was titled "Character Creation" and was held at the Hawaii Family Literacy Library in Kalihi. Weeks before the actual event, I contacted the librarian to offer our services and asked if the participating children can bring any recyclable and reusable materials, including newspaper, bottle caps, dryer sheets, plastic bottles, cans etc. On the day of the event, to our surprise, the children were prepared. One of the children brought a Ziploc bag filled with bottle caps and the other contributed with a shopping bag full of toilet paper rolls. We then saw a growing stack of newspaper that laid on top the shelves. It was a rewarding sight to see. The event then took place. The idea was to have the children create their favorite book character using the recyclable and reusable materials.

Quality example is essential to quality results. During that two hour time slot, the kids never left their attention away from crafting their character. They were either painting, cutting, gluing, or finding a certain material. The kids were prompted to make a quality creation because they viewed our examples made by our members and myself. And although there were only about five to six children who attended, we all knew that this event was a success. We inspired the children-- showing how common "trash" can be reused to make something out of our own creativity.

This event is not the end. The Craft For Care is and will be a long-held project and will hopefully continue to inspire the minds of all individuals. Our club will prosper and enlarge to be able to help the spread of environmental education in our local community even further.