Walton hosts hundreds of students at St. Croix Earth Day EcoFair with Leadership Grant
Olasee Davis of the University of the Virgin Islands gives a presentation on the history behind the St. George Village Botanical Garden as he discusses the slave grave site located within the gardens. Photo: Diana Dias / St. Croix Source
This Earth Day, hundreds of third - sixth grade students participated in hands-on environmental activities at the St. Croix Eco Fair for the first time since the pandemic. Olivia Walton, Switzer Fellow and Education Coordinator at the St. Croix Environmental Association in the U.S. Virgin Islands, organized the event with support from a Switzer Foundation Leadership Grant.
“The Eco Fair is a way for us to celebrate Earth Day and to teach environmental science concepts,” Olivia told the St. Croix Source. The fair “encourages students to think about solutions to environmental issues in a way that they themselves can impact and change the Earth positively.”
Held at the St. George Village Botanical Garden the Eco Fair brought in presenters from “various backgrounds, ranging from the arts and culture, science, government agencies and other artists, who all taught environmental concepts to the students,” the St. Croix Source reports. Activities included topics such as “native plant leaf printing, to sea turtle hatchling race, to an environmental book reading, a bat presentation, and arts and crafting with nature.”
The event received front page coverage in the St. Croix Avis, and was also featured online in the St. Croix Source.
