Foothills Park Clean Up Was A Huge Success!

Earth Guardian Youth Hard at Work in the Foothills Park

We would like to thank the great group of youth and adults that joined us at Foothills Community Park last week to help us with our first official weed pulling gathering since we adopted it on the 22nd of July.

Even though it was above 90 degrees everyone hung in their and we got the job done.   We will be gathering the 2nd Saturday of every month beginning in August in the Foothills Park to continue weeding and keeping pesticides out.  We hope that some of you will be able to join us next time.  We would also like to extend an invitation to other groups who might want to adopt a park here in Boulder, if you contact us we can help you get started.

On a final note, we are proud to share a letter we received from the Mayor of Boulder this week acknowledging us dedication to helping end the use of Pesticides in our parks this summer.  That Letter is as follows:     

Letter from the Mayor of Boulder Dated July 18th, 2010

Dear Friends,
This letter is in support of the Boulder's Earth Guardians.  As a group of concerned young people, Earth Guardians came to City Council in the Spring of 2010 with a concern about pesticides and herbicides that were being used in Boulder's City Parks.  Their passion for the environment was evident, but their commitment and articulate communication to the Council, made each Council member and City Staff member take notice.

Largely due to the Earth Guardians testimony, the City stopped pesticide and herbicide spraying in our parks, and is currently reviewing the process for determining which, if any, should be used on City land.  Earth Guardians then proposed to hand weed the garden beds in Foothills Park and enlisted another group to help them.  It is their mission to find other groups to adopt other City Parks.  What an amazing bunch of kids!

I look forward to working with the Earth Guardians in the future as they work to make our City safe for this and future generations.

Sincerely,
Susan Osborn, Mayor
City of Boulder

Community Park Weeding Day

ACTION ALERT

What: A Fun Earth Guardian Organized Community Park Weeding Day

When: Friday July 23^th at 10:30-12:30

Where: Foothills Community Park in North Boulder behind the Waldorf School off of Violet and Broadway

Dear Friends,

We at Earth Guardians are excited to announce that we have officially adopted the Foothills Community Park in North Boulder. What does this mean you are probably wondering? Well, we will be responsible for organizing the community to join us in keeping the park weed free. This community action will prevent pesticides from being sprayed, pesticides that put our health, our children’s health and the health of our wildlife and water systems at risk.

Foothills Community Park in North Boulder

So please join us Friday, July 23^th at 10:30 am to 12:30 pm to help get the Foothills Park cleaned up, while having some fun, getting to know your community, and making the park a safe place for our children to play in. It is very empowering working by your children’s side in these activities. It helps them connect with the importance of caring for the Earth and shows them that their actions can have a positive impact on creating a safe healthy community to grow up in. Please bring water and a picnic lunch for afterwards.

The Earth Guardian youth have had a very positive impact here in the Boulder community after responding to an article in the paper that stated the City was going to add two new harmful chemicals to the list of approved chemicals to be used in the parks and around our City. The Earth Guardian youth helped organized the community to speak out against this action, and through the power of uniting all of our voices we won! We have been watching the City list that is posted every Friday on what and where they will spray that week and for over a month now they have still not scheduled any spraying in our parks. We commend the City for listening and protecting the health of our children and us all. Officials said that they usually hear from the same small group of people on this issue, but that they received emails and phone calls from over 1,000 people, so all of you who responded to this call, commend yourself. The voice of the people united can change the world.

Because the City hasn't been spraying the parks, they are filling with weeds, so we would like to ask anyone who knows other groups to follow our lead and adopt a park or a median here in our City to keep pesticides out of the parks for good. They can contact us and we can help them get started. It is a big job and the City does not have enough manpower to do it alone. By uniting our efforts we can be an example for other cities to do the same thing in their communities.

Thank you for caring, and for uniting on behalf of this issue that affects us all.

Tamara Rose Roske