Celebrating Earth Day at MSLO
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, we teamed up with education nonprofit PENCIL to launch an Earth Day poster contest for nine New York City public schools in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, the Bronx, and Queens.  Each school chose a winning poster to represent grades 1-5. On Earth Day, we held an event in my New York City offices to celebrate the students and their creative posters. I, along with four esteemed judges; Lisa Belzberg - PENCIL Founder and Board Chair, Alex Postman - Body+Soul: Whole Living editor, Adrian Benepe - New York City Parks and Recreation Commissioner, and Martin Carey - artist and creator of one of the first Earth Day posters, had the challenge of determining the five grand prize winners. Each entrant received a $50 gift card to Barnes & Noble and the five grand prizewinners each received two roundtrip airline tickets from Jet Blue Airways.
1 This is the banner we made for the event.
2 The attendees included students, parents, and school officials from New York City.
3 Here I am kicking things off and introducing the judges.
4 Alex Postman, editor-in-chief of our Body+Soul magazine, which will change names to Whole Living magazine with the June issue, addressing the crowd
5 Here I am with judges Adrian Benepe - Commissioner NYC Parks Department, Marty Carey - artist and creator of one of the original Earth Day Posters holding his poster, Alex Postman - editor-in-chief Body+Soul magazine (soon to be Whole Living Magazine) and Lisa Belsberg - President of PENCIL
6 Here I am with Lisa Belsberg.
7 Lisa reviewing some of the posters
8 Here is judge Marty Carey - creator of one of the original Earth Day Posters.
9 Marty is also the father of Sarah Carey, food editor for Martha Stewart Living.
10 Here I am with Adrian Benepe.
11 These two entrants also appeared on my television show earlier in the day displaying their posters.
12 Here I am with Jean Graham, Erin Furey, and Heather Kirkland who work for MSLO and organized the event.
13 In the 1st grade category - Alexis Czajkowski from P.S. 34
14 A better look at her winning poster
15 The winning poster for the 2nd grade - Awa Sidibe - P.S. 76
16 Here I am with Awa Sidibe - P.S. 76
17 Announcing the 3rd grade winner
18 And here I am with 3rd grade winner - Anwen Burns - P.S. 230
19 A better look
20 The winning poster from the 4th grade was created by Kayla Harris - P.S. 19 - who was unable to attend the event.
21 A closer look
22 Here I am with 5th grade winner - Brian Wong - P.S. 230
23 Marty Carey offering words of wisdom to 5th grader Brian Wong
24 A good look at a great poster
25 The judges and the winning posters - 1st grade: Alexis Czajkowski - P.S. 34, 3rd grade: Anwen Burns - P.S. 230, 5th grade: Brian Wong - P.S. 230, Adrien holding the 4th grade poster: Kayla Harris - P.S. 19, and me holding the 2nd grade poster: Awa Sidibe - P.S. 76
26 These children did a great job.
27 The judges
28 A very happy Alexis Czajkowski - P.S. 34
29 Here I am with Matt Hickman - blogger for Mother Nature Network who covered the event.
30 Posing with winner Alexis Czajkowski and her mother
31 Sarah Carey and her son
32 With 5th grade winner Brian Wong and his family
33 This adorable girl entered the contest and appeared on my television show earlier in the day.
34 Posing with students and their families
35 Murray's supplied us with wonderful cheeses. http://www.murrayscheese.com/
36 I provided fresh eggs from my farm to create deviled eggs.
37 Crudites were made from beautiful asparagus and radishes from the Greenmarket.
38 Apples from Migliorelli Farm http://migliorelli.com/
The menu served at this event was mostly local and mostly focused on Greenmarket farmers/producers.
Greenmarket refers to the largest and most successful open-air farmers market program in the country, with 50 Greenmarkets located throughout New York City. It is one of many programs run by GrowNYC (formerly Council on the Environment of NYC).
Guests enjoyed crudités, cheeses, and hors d’oeuvres made from ingredients purchased from the growers listed below. In addition, there were two non-Greenmarket items served - eggs from my farm and delicious sliders from Fleisher’s grass-fed and organic meats.
Cato Corner Farm
At Grand Army Plaza Saturdays, Union Square Saturdays, Ft. Greene on Saturdays
Consider Bardwell Farm
At Union Square Mondays, Greenpoint/McCarren Park Saturdays, Ft. Greene Saturdays, Tompkins Square Sundays, Abingdon Square Saturdays, Cortelyou Sundays, Carroll Gardens Sundays
Boditree Farm
At Union Square Wednesdays and Fridays and Abingdon Square Saturdays
Cayuga Bread
New York state grown grains!
At Union Square Wednesdays, Grand Army Plaza Saturdays, Greenpoint Saturdays, Cortelyou Saturdays, Carroll Gardens Sundays, 77th Street Sundays
Cayuga Pure Organics has partnered with Orwasher's Bakery to create the most local and responsible bread ever produced! Â It has been generations since New York State has produced it's very own bread wheat.
Migliorelli Farm
At Union Square Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and many other locations!
Mountain Sweet Berry Farms
At Union Square Wednesdays and Saturdays
Lynnhaven Goat Cheese
At Union Square Wednesdays and Saturdays and Grand Army Plaza Saturdays
Great art for a great cause.
Gloria!!
Posted by: Gloria | April 26th, 2010 at 12:22 am
Those children were so cute! Brian wong's poater was exceptional for a fifth grader! Earth day is growing by leaps and bounds each year! This year I planted two tree's and took part in my towns recycling program. Whats not recyclable is composted. You would be very surprised just how little our actual garbage is now. Check out the tree's that I planted. http://www.meandmartha.net
Thank you as always! Your an inspiration!
Dan Viger
Hollis Center, Maine.
Posted by: Dan Viger | April 26th, 2010 at 12:30 am
I like the new title of the magazine. The artwork is quite lovely. And the deviled eggs are yummy looking...i LOVE deviled eggs! I love them made with 100% mayo...but an aunt showed me how to make deviled eggs with 1/2 yogourt & 1/2 mayo or sour cream. Thanks
Posted by: http://twitter.com/Geotravel | April 26th, 2010 at 1:31 am
Earth Hour is a wonderful way to make us realise just how much power we use and come up with ideas to save power. Did you know Earth Hour was developed in Australia and we do a weekly Earth Hour - every Wednesday night!
Posted by: Louise | April 26th, 2010 at 2:13 am
Happy 40th Anniversary of Earth day! amazing posters! such talented kids. Thank you for an inspiring post Martha!
Posted by: Rowaida Flayhan | April 26th, 2010 at 5:23 am
A great community service! Terrific posters! Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Teresa Touey | April 26th, 2010 at 9:06 am
That was the greatest idea, Martha! The kids art would make very cute t-shirts. Will you post your deviled egg recipe? I love deviled eggs and like to try different recipes. Thanks.
Posted by: Beth | April 26th, 2010 at 9:15 am
All the children's posters were awesome! Thanks for sharing. Any chance we could purchase re-prints? Brian's is especially good and might inspire others in a classroom or art room. Please let us know. Thanks again.
Posted by: Lynne | April 26th, 2010 at 9:57 am
Martha, what an exciting way to celebrate Earth Day with the younguns! I am in awe of the art work very talented kids. Thanks for letting us see this post.
Posted by: KLBrown | April 26th, 2010 at 10:15 am
Hi Martha,
That poster contest was really special and I’m sure the first of many that will occur on a regular basis across the country. They definitely prove how smart and observant kids are and I hope they will be prominently displayed somewhere for others to view for awhile. Alexis’ was one of my picks and I was amazed that she was only in the 1st grade! All the kids did a great job! Trish
Posted by: Trish | April 26th, 2010 at 10:22 am
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Very Nice!
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So meaningful to see you participating with our youth to bring them along into the bigger picture.
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My Earth Day project was organizing my college students from RISD, Wheaton, and Brown to activate the inception of an artists co-op where they will farm, dance, create and meditate within a natural world. Food, music, theatre, philosophy and the like -- all connected in space and time!
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Wish us luck, as I do you for the perpetuation of such fine events as yours, held at MSLO!
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Andrea
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Posted by: andreaandweims on Twitter | April 26th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
Hi Martha, This was a fantastic blog about the super Earth Day Celebration at MSLO! I absolutely love all of the photos of those present plus the final winners. Everyone looked so very happy. Do you think you will do it again next year?! Once again your blog reminds me of my old teaching days. I remember the first Earth Day back in 1970. I was teaching 4th graders and we had a wonderful time studying trees and plants, etc. One fun thing we did was to write stories about trees, etc. and pretend the trees were telling the stories. The kids had fun and did superb jobs with their creative stories and pictures. Thanks again for the memories! Loved your 'Ask Martha' on Sirius Radio today! Can't wait to see the products at Petsmart and see the ad with F,S&GK. I know they will be great! I'm glad you were on early, because I had to go somewher at your regular time. Thanks. Love. Jan
Posted by: Jan Erickson | April 26th, 2010 at 10:58 pm
ooo la la Martha, your new hairstyle is looking very suave.
Three stamps of approval!
Brenda
Posted by: Brenda Knowlton | April 27th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
All of the children did a wonderful job on there art work. The 4th grade winner Kayla Harris is actually my God-Daughter and I am extremely proud of her achivement and though she couldnt attend the ceremony I really hope that Martha Stewart is able to reach out to her to congratulate her personally.
Thank you.
Posted by: Deserae Blacknall | April 28th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
I greatly appreciate your focus on environmentally friendly products and organic foods. However, I do not understand why all your cookware products are made in China. With the questionable status of Chinese made products I would hope that you would seek out US manufacturers to produce environmentally safe cookware with your name attached. That is another way of putting Americans back to work!
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