New Haven Independent

The Earthathon is the brainchild of Chris Schweitzer, a staffer at the New Haven/León Sister City Project.

Participants will collect pledges for green activities undertaken between April 10 and May 10 — like commuting on two wheels instead of four, or busing to work, or working in the Fair Haven School greenhouse, or swearing off meat for a week. These actions will promote sustainability at home and solidarity in Central America, where the fund will support small development projects in rural Nicaragua.

These students are in Mike Soares’s ESL (English as a Second Language) class and come from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. Oscar Mendez, in the rear of the photo (standing on a box to be seen, next to Soares) is from a farming family. He said the family grew plantains, sugar cane, beans, yucca, and flowers. Some they sold, and some they kept for themselves.

Soares spent two years in the Peace Corps in Nicaragua, where he did some community gardening. But he said he’s learned much more from his students about the various plants they’re growing in the recently activated greenhouse on the roof of the school. Pictured above, transplanting tiny pepper seedlings are Daisy Juarez, who’s from Tlaxcala, Mexico, and Joshua Colón is from Cuamo, Puerto Rico. Daisy said she grew flowers in Mexico, while Joshua grew tomatoes, squash and cucumbers in his family’s garden.

After the Peace Corps, Soares came to teach in New Haven. He connected with the Sister City Project, whose board he recently joined. He said the greenhouse project is a great fit with the Earthathon. “The plan is that community people can volunteer here and interact with the kids — they can learn from each other” — and support the Project’s work in Nicaragua.

Other co-sponsors include NOFA-CT (Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut), CitySeed, New Haven Land Trust, Solar Youth, the New Haven Bioregional Group, Elm City Cycling, and the Yale Sustainable Food Project.

For more information, visit the Sister City Project website or call the office at 203.562.1607.