Written by Ally Richardson – Pikes Peak Permaculture Board Member
We all have an innate connection with our Earth, Biophilia, and we all deserve to learn about her.
Pikes Peak Permaculture (PPP) is a 501c3 educational nonprofit organization in the Pikes Peak region, serving Southern Colorado in the life and ways of permaculture.
What is Permaculture? Adapted from founding member Bill Mollison, Permaculture can be defined in many ways. One can describe Permaculture as a whole systems design science integrating land, resources, people, animals, and the environment through mutually beneficial synergies – mimicking the no waste, closed loop systems seen in diverse natural systems. More deeply, Permaculture is a way to connect with nature to understand how natural systems work to grow food for all life. Permaculture has an ethical base of care for the earth, care for the people, and care for the future. PPP has certified many professionals and students since 2002 in Beginner/Advanced Permaculture Design, as well as offering Advanced Permaculture Teacher Training. We value providing permaculture education, fair and equitable systems, and embracing ethical processes. Since last year, with many partnerships throughout the community, PPP has broadened the capability for bringing important Permaculture education to a larger audience in our region by offering hands-on skills training and workshops.
PPP was contacted by public school, Pinello Elementary, Widefield School District 3, Colorado Springs, to host their Environment Club following a community recommendation from someone involved in the garden project at Galileo School of Math and Science, Colorado Springs School District 11. Within months, PPP created a Spring 8-week Permaculture curriculum focusing on presenting Permaculture to 24 students in 2nd through 5th grade. Our curriculum focused towards introducing Earth’s natural systems, soils, design, and people care. The activities of the club include observation skills of interconnectedness with the recurring rhythms and patterns found in nature, as well as outdoor exploration; time to learn in the environment/climate we live in, which I strongly believe enhances one’s sense to understand complexity and a sense of place in the World.
Soon after we began hosting the club, we felt the need to expand the idea to the whole school, seeing that we were working with an underserved school in our community. Jayme Domejka at PPP came up with a brilliant idea to offer to host an Earth Day event for the whole school. The school administration gladly accepted the proposal and considered this their STEM day – focusing on Permaculture-related activities to show appreciation to the Earth and a Day without Hate. Jayme and I worked diligently to ensure we had enough materials for 336 students. The 9 activities we had planned were making seed balls, planting seeds, grounding Earth meditation, repurposing dishes into birdbaths, building a bug with repurposed materials, reading The Lorax and discussing standing up for the voiceless- animals and plants who share our planet, natural paints made from plants, an erosion game, and a schoolyard scavenger hunt. We gathered all the materials for the activities, and even extended our collecting efforts out into the community to ask for donations. For the seed balls, Rick’s Garden Supply donated 150+ packets of wildflower seeds and C and C Stone of Colorado Springs donated 5 5-gallon buckets of red clay. For the birdbaths, we needed over 200 pieces of bowls and dishes, to which the Goodwill Outlet of Colorado Springs personally gathered the pieces for the students and donated toward the effort. How very moving the whole experience was! All the support from the community was a big deal for our organization and for the 336 students at Pinello. We are extremely grateful!
The school administration wishes to continue the Environment Club program next year, as well as incorporating Permaculture principles into their whole school’s curriculum to reach their goal of having a future perennial edible landscape; a food forest in which students can intermingle with different levels of vegetation and at different times of the year. Within the U.S, to the best of our knowledge, the Pinello project is the first Permaculture environment club program taught in an elementary public-school setting with the potential to be a national model for environmental education and growing food in an elementary setting.
