Community Climate Expo

Climate Action Ripple Effect (CARE)
Rebranded as CARE for the 2022 fall semester, the project grew to include more than 160 students from grades 7-12 who created 42 climate-action projects displayed and judged at the CARE Summit December 2022. This event drew in more than 300 attendees.
Lessons learned by the planning team during the spring semester prompted development of a CARE mentor program, where 35 local climate-action experts and advocates from all sectors supported students during project development. This provided many benefits, including intergenerational and cross-cultural communication and collaboration, better research outcomes, improved project deliverables, and stronger community impact.
CARE also introduced diverse project categories to expand students’ understanding of climate change’s broad and deep impacts. These included Nature & Biodiversity, Agriculture & Food, Energy & Buildings, Waste Reduction, Active Transportation, and Community Resilience.
These categories and potential mentors were introduced at the CARE Kick-Off event hosted by Seaton Secondary School in its gymnasium. Soon thereafter, FOF visited all participating classes to coach students on community sustainability, community engagement (a project requirement), project and display design and development, and public speaking.
The resulting projects ranged from salmon-habitat restoration, to pollinator education in elementary school classrooms, to waste-reduction videos for immigrants, to a solar-powered hot water heater, and the creation of CARE Botanicals from local invasive plant species.
CARE also brought a website, teacher, and student resources, along with strong media coverage and increased support from local sponsors and prize donors.