Salina School students participate in an Earth Day event April 22.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN – Students at the Salina School campus celebrated Earth Day April 22 with guest speakers Mayor Abdullah Hammoud and Dearborn Public Schools Interim Supt. Lamis Srour, as well as hands-on learning experiences.
Student speakers also participated in the Earth Day program.
The elementary school building has a brand new, plastic-free wooden playscape, while the middle school has a materially similar activity recreation area undergoing installation.
Elementary school students rotated through learning stations run by middle school students, Edsel Ford High School students, city employees and other participants.
Hammoud told the students that he was excited to see all the changes that were taking place across the campus, including the green schoolyard projects.
“You guys are becoming not only an example for all of Dearborn Public Schools, but you are really setting the example for all of Michigan and all of the country,” he said. “But how we make our spaces interactive with our children, how we continue to beautify them, how we become environmental activists in everything that we do ensures that we are improving the environment in every small and large way possible.”
Dearborn Edsel Ford High School students join with Salina School students during an Earth Day event April 22.
Hammoud said he enjoys partnering with the school and promised that there are more exciting projects in the pipeline to continually create a separation between the industrial side of the South End and the residential side.
“We are continually working on improving the air quality to reduce the asthma burden that is happening all across here,” he said. “I’m a kid that grew up with asthma, along with my siblings, and I didn’t grow up in the South End – my mom did – so I hope I get a little bit of street cred there, but we are doing everything that we can to help improve the environment, holding all the corporate polluters accountable.”
Hammoud said that several entities that were polluting the South End have been shut down.
“We have air quality monitors now across the entirety of the South End, so if your parents sign up, they can actually get a text message every single morning so before you walk outside, you’ll know: is it a good air quality day or a bad air quality day, or is it a bad day for sensitive populations with asthma or COPD,” he said. “So, we are doing all that we can as a collective with community partnerships.”
Srour said she was pleased that they were celebrating Earth Day by deepening their connection to the land and to the Salina community.
“Today is a grand celebration for a reason: we are officially celebrating the construction of our two newest nature playscapes, at Salina north and community center areas,” she said. “These aren’t just playgrounds: they are living classrooms where our children will explore, imagine and learn how to be good stewards of the earth.”
Srour said the campus also includes multiple nature-themed play areas, food gardens, a new prairie area, rain gardens and more.
Students learn about recycling during an Earth Day event April 22 at Salina School in Dearborn.
ABove and below, Salina School students participate in an Earth Day event April 22.
Salina School students participate in an Earth Day event April 22.
Dearborn Public Schools Interim Supt. Lamis Srour speaks during a Salina School Earth Day event April 22.
Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud speaks during a Salina School Earth Day event April 22.