June/July 2018 Newsletter: IB in Action: Woodbury Wavemakers Advocate for New Doan Brook Sign
The Woodbury Wavemakers Club recently learned a valuable lesson: advocacy and action leads to results. Members of the club, which focuses on promoting clean waterways and drinking water, wrote a letter to the City of Shaker Heights earlier this year to share their thoughts on the importance of the area’s connected waterways and the effects of local water pollution. They also expressed their desire to raise money for new signage at the Doan Brook bridge (at the north east corner of the Woodbury School grounds) to explain to passersby the importance of local watersheds.
Their action led to contributions from the Doan Brook Watershed Partnership, the City of Shaker Heights, architectural firm GPD Group, and the Woodbury PTO to install an updated sign later this summer. On May 25, the club invited representatives from each of the groups to an appreciation ceremony at the site of the new sign. Student Henry York read the group’s letter out loud while his peers Erik Maier, Hudson Jones and Carter Marston a read poem they wrote for World Water Day.
Club advisor and Woodbury sixth-grade teacher Christine Farren spoke at the event. “These students are empowered. They learned that someone’s listening to them and that they can make change,” she explained. “We’re a small group that really coming together to put service into action for something that will benefit the community.”