Video
|
Video
|
Picking up trash, planting trees and learning about rehabilitated wildlife? Sure beats sitting in class.
The group, comprised of sixth and seventh graders from Belmont Ridge Middle School, spent the morning of April 15 out of school and getting dirty—opting to fish trash out of streams and fertilize baby trees near the neighboring National Conference Center rather than sit in class.
“This is our fifth consecutive year having Earth Day here at the National Conference Center,” Sharon Meyers, an employee of the center, said. “We love being part of it and helping the environment.”
The students in attendance were members of the middle school’s ecology class—which focuses on teaching students to leave a greener footprint in their lives.
Additionally, the club also got the chance to see a trio of animals that had been injured and rehabilitated—including a possum and an owl—and then witnessed Belinda Burwell, director and veterinarian at the Blue Ridge Wildlife Center, release a red-tailed hawk back into the wild. The hawk had been hit by a car and nursed back to health.
Earth Day is officially recognized on April 22, but Belmont Ridge Middle and the National Conference Center decided to hold festivities a week early to give the students—who will be out on Spring Break next week—the chance to participate.
 | Joel Mateo, 11, shovels soil onto a newly planted tree with his Belmont Ridge Middle School classmates during an educational event at the National Conference Center April 15 celebrating Earth Day a week early. Times-Mirror Staff Photo/Beverly Denny |
 | Belinda Lee Burwell, Director of the Blue Ridge Wildlife Center, prepares to release a rehabilitated red-tailed hawk back into the wild in front of a Belmont Ridge Middle School ecology class at the National Conference Center April 15 as part of an early celebration of Earth Day. The wildlife center doesn't name and limits handling of wildlife that are able to recover so that they will continue to keep their distance from humans. Times-Mirror Staff Photo/Beverly Denny |
 | Connor Hite, 11, waits to shovel soil around a newly planted tree with his ecology class of Belmont Ridge Middle School as part of a National Conference Center event April 15 celebrating Earth Day early. Times-Mirror Staff Photo/Beverly Denny |
 | Belinda Lee Burwell, Director of the Blue Ridge Wildlife Center, shows an eastern screech owl named Shrek to students in an ecology class at Belmont Ridge Middle School as part of an Earth Day event April 15 at the National Conference Center. Shrek was hit by a car two years ago and is now mostlly blind so he cannot be released back into the wild. Times-Mirror Staff Photo/Beverly Denny |
 | Sydney Sawyer, 12, grabs a piece of trash from a classmate of her Belmont Ridge Middle School ecology class as they walked through the woods to the National Conference Center for an Earth Day event April 15. After the 6th and 7th graders collected trash, they were shown rehabilitated wildlife and witnessed the release of a red-tailed hawk. Times-Mirror Staff Photo/Beverly Denny |
This is one of the great day we all should think seriously about this day and plan something good in our daily life.
Alex Fetanat
Hell, to me, Earth Day never comes soon enough. I cannot wait to get through Christmas, New Years etc… I know that the real gold comes when Earth Day ascends upon our day like a bolt of lightning. If there was no Earth Day I would be lost. Thank you United Nations for continuing to inhabit my fine country. I only pray that some day you will enforce your many holidays at the end of a barrel. May you begin with the very special day should I say International Day of Nowruz, or my favorite holiday International Day for Biological Diversity, May 22nd. I’m already warming up, not in the climate sense but in the drinking sense. (Wink) Never mind, UN get out of my country. Move to Haiti where you stand a sliver of a chance to do some good.
Possum taste delicious. Did these children get a chance to eat the possum when they were done petting it. I left my grammy’s receipe below
Ingredients:
two cans of tomato sauce
three cans of cooked tomatoes
1/2 thickly sliced worthog meat (mainly for flavor)
a big bag of pasta noodles (any redneck kind will do)
1/2 possum (other 1/2 can be used for breakfast possum-omlettes)
salt and pepper
Directions:
Fry bacon in big gramma kettle, over mid. size fire, then fry possum in the grease till golden brown. Take the meat out, then add enough water to pot to fill 2/3 way and then boil noodles. Once cooked add both things of tomatoes to kettle and meat and add enough salt and pepper to old granny’s taste. Cook all together for a bout 1 hour simmering over low fire to sautee.
Bone Appa Teet.
Updated: Thirteen-year-old pedestrian hit crossing Route 7 near Dulles Town Center
UPDATE: Missing Leesburg man drowns in drainage pond
Leesburg high schools switch things around
Loudoun inmate dies after suffering massive stroke in prison
Two Loudoun County residents involved in $1.5 million mortgage scheme
