In tune with nature
01 March 2006
by Eliza Thomas
“We visit schools to try to get students in touch with what’s under all this concrete,” says Blair Philips, creator of the Fruit Tree Tour, a six vehicle, veggie oil-powered caravan currently spreading the gospel of sustainability in a city near you.
In February, the nomadic tribe of 30 volunteer eco-educators made pit stops around the Southland, planting school yards with fruit trees and indigenous corn, and engaging students in conversations around key ecological and cultural concepts like nutrient cycles, interconnectedness, diversity and respect. This month they’re headed up to Ojai, Santa Barbara and San Louis Obispo, their eco-party on wheels in tow.
For students, the experience of hanging with the Fruit Tree crew is anything but the average school day. Their caravanning school buses handpainted with murals, Fruit Tree volunteers bust eco-themed rhymes and groove to West African Dun-Dun-Bah agricultural rhythms. Performers in traditional costume present tribal dance and storytellers share Native American nature fables. The event culminates with students hand-planting a row of corn or a tree on school property, followed by a closing circle gathering to give thanks for the day’s experience. It’s “a fusion of arts, culture and ecology” to “rekindle relationships with the earth and empower proactive change,” effuses Philips. In other words, school has never been cooler.
“We visit schools to try to get students in touch with what’s under all this concrete,” says Blair Philips, creator of the Fruit Tree Tour, a six vehicle, veggie oil-powered caravan currently spreading the gospel of sustainability in a city near you.In February, the nomadic tribe of 30 volunteer eco-educators made pit stops around the Southland, planting school yards with fruit trees and indigenous corn, and engaging students in conversations around key ecological and cultural concepts like nutrient cycles, interconnectedness, diversity and respect. This month they’re headed up to Ojai, Santa Barbara and San Louis Obispo, their eco-party on wheels in tow.
For students, the experience of hanging with the Fruit Tree crew is anything but the average school day. Their caravanning school buses handpainted with murals, Fruit Tree volunteers bust eco-themed rhymes and groove to West African Dun-Dun-Bah agricultural rhythms. Performers in traditional costume present tribal dance and storytellers share Native American nature fables. The event culminates with students hand-planting a row of corn or a tree on school property, followed by a closing circle gathering to give thanks for the day’s experience. It’s “a fusion of arts, culture and ecology” to “rekindle relationships with the earth and empower proactive change,” effuses Philips. In other words, school has never been cooler.