Clothing made from reused materials!

 Kaitlin Lott did her service learning hours helping DeeDee Green at Escambia County's Department of Solid and Waste Management Recycling and Education Outreach. During her service she was reminded of a project she did last year. Check out this dress she made from reused materials: 

 "One lesson very important that not only the facility but also our text is to encourage family and friends to recycle or start a recycling program in your community. Coincidentally I was able to apply these ideas to my own life and inspired my supervisor. A year ago I participated in a fashion show where the dresses had to be made out of recycled goods. I used old M&M wrappers and garbage bags. Not only did this happen within my community but also with friends. This related to my work because it was a beginning step for me in my endeavors towards recycling while inspiring others to perhaps participate in more recycling activities." Kaitlin Lott

PowerShift for Service Learning!

UWF group at PowerShift 2013!


Check out what Kimberely had to say about the skills she devloped: The skills that I developed from this conference I could not have imagined going into this trip! I went a little skeptical about current environmental issues. To be honest, I never gave the environment a second glance, let alone thought I would end up at a conference a thousand plus miles from my comfort zone, surrounded by “tree huggers”. I learned that the issues at hand like water pollution or something as simple as pollution in our community can all be greatly reduced just by joining hands with those that simply want to improve the land we live on. They are not “tree huggers”! They are people wanting to save the earth from the person that I use to be. That person is the selfish being that turned away from anything environmental because I did not understand that it entailed more that chaining oneself to an old oak tree. Now that I know what I know that sounds incredibly ignorant. Unfortunately there are still a lot of people like the old me out there. My job now is to educate and inform them of what they don’t know. That is that being environmentally continence is not about saving trees. It is about being aware of the current danger that our planet is in and calling people to action to save it! I am so incredibly thankful for this opportunity that I was given to go on this trip; it has changed my viewpoints and lifestyle drastically. 

Everyone can do something!

One of my favorite statements about service learning thus far:

Part of an oyster reef built by students!

"My experience with Keep Pensacola Beautiful has led me to want to work with them more in the future once I’m out of the wheelchair. To see people who volunteer their “sleeping in” time on a Saturday morning to go out and build oyster reefs or clean up a cemetery inspires me and makes me realize that things like this are important for communities to participate in. The thing that amazed me was that the people who showed up were always happy to be there and always smiling and very kind. It was such a great overall experience that I would encourage anybody to check out at least once."