As we’ve previously mentioned on the MEP Matters blog, an elementary school in Indianapolis, IN was raising money for Mara Elephant Project through a yearly project called Global Marketplace. Crooked Creek Elementary School is in the Metropolitan School District of Washington Township, one of only six International Baccalaureate (IB) public school districts in the country that offers IB programs grades K-12.
IB elementary schools like Crooked Creek teach their children that when they learn something, they feel something, and those feelings and that knowledge lead them to take action. This is something Crooked Creek’s media specialist and IB coordinator Kelly Ouattara (pictured right) calls, “the head, the heart and the hands.” Part of emphasizing this curriculum are projects like the Global Marketplace. In an IB school, learning about an ecosystem like Kenya’s, a landscape species like elephants and what children can do today to ensure they are protected is an essential part to creating an empathetic future generation that is going to lead the charge.
Children at Crooked Creek selling their handmade bookmarks to support MEP.
Every February, Global Marketplace is set up at Crooked Creek so that parents, community members and other kids can come and shop handmade items that the children make to sell. Items like bookmarks, jewelry, key chains (pictured left) and notebooks are all made with care by the kids knowing that the money they raise is going to a global cause. Lucky for MEP, this year, that cause is us!
So, in January, MEP’s Communications Director Claire Bolles went to Crooked Creek and presented to grades kindergarten through fifth on Mara Elephant Project to get them motivated to raise as much money as possible during their Global Marketplace. Now, in April, we’re happy to report they’ve raised $2,000 for MEP!
Assistant Principal Josh Bolles, IB Coordinator Kelly Ouattara, MEP Communications Director Claire Bolles, Principal Keana Parquet and students from Crooked Creek.
We heard a report from a parent that their 5-year-old came home and was telling the family in detail over dinner why they needed to raise the money for MEP.
A sign advertising handmade items at one Global Marketplace booth.
“We need to save the elephants from taking peoples crops and getting hurt. We need to buy oil (for chili fences) and collars for them.” Crooked Creek Kindergartener
MEP would like to say a special thank you to the Crooked Creek IB Coordinator Kelly Ouattara, Assistant Principal Josh Bolles and Principal Keana Parquet for their dedication to this project!
Children selling their postcards about elephants to benefit MEP.
One of the pillars of belief that drives Mara Elephant Project’s mission is that the youth of this world are the key to the conservation of our ecosystems and protection of our endangered animals and the $2,000 raised by Crooked Creek students demonstrates that we are in their very capable and compassionate hands.
