Cornell undergraduates Rotem Ayalon '02, left, and Evan Bloom '00 meet primatologist and Cornell A.D. White Professor-at-Large Jane Goodall at the Roots & Shoots National College Summit in Maryland in October. Courtesy of Evan Bloom
Keeping with the metaphor, last month's Roots & Shoots National College Summit might have been called "Water, Sun and Fertilizer" for sophomore Rotem Ayalon and senior Evan Bloom, Cornell students who attended the event.
The two returned with renewed energy and ideas for the Cornell branch of Roots & Shoots, a youth-oriented outreach program to promote care for the environment, animals and human communities.
The summit, held at YMCA Camp Letts in Edgewater, Md., Oct. 14-17, featured Jane Goodall, the chimpanzee primatologist and Cornell A.D. White Professor-at-Large. Roots & Shoots was founded by Goodall in Tanzania, East Africa, in 1991 and now has more than 1,000 branches in more than 38 states and 49 other countries.
"Roots creep underground everywhere and make a firm foundation. Shoots seem very weak, but to reach the light they can break through brick walls," Goodall has said of the organization's name.
"Imagine that the brick walls are all the problems we have inflicted on our planet. Hundreds and thousands of roots and shoots, hundreds and thousands of young people around the world, can break through these walls," she said.
Bloom, a biology major from Chappaqua, N.Y., who is the Cornell branch president, said of the summit, "We had time to interact with [Goodall] and ask her specific questions, to get to know her a bit and exchange different ideas. It was really a great experience to sit and actually be able to talk with this woman who has had such incredible experiences."
Ayalon, an agricultural and biological engineering major from Potsdam, N.Y., said, "It's just nice to see that there are all these people out there doing something, taking the time to do something other than school work."
The summit also featured talks by a representative from the Endangered Species Chocolate Co., which donates 25 percent of its annual profits to animal protection groups like the Jane Goodall Institute.
One of the summit's goals was to begin developing a handbook for college Roots & Shoots groups, with project ideas and advice on how to publicize and obtain members. Many of the schools represented did not yet have branches, but said they planned to form them after the summit.
Other activities at the summit included practicing outreach with local schoolchildren, planting trees around the campsite, and discussing possible directions for the organization.
"One of the common problems is apathy at every level, and we discussed how to combat that," Bloom said.
The Cornell group now hopes to build a butterfly garden, with native plants that attract migrating butterflies, that would provide information on their life cycle as well as benches for visitors. Possibly funded by a Community Partnership Board grant, the butterfly garden would be built on the Cornell campus, at a school or at the Cayuga Nature Center, and it would involve local children.
Other plans include partnering with related organizations and teaching 4-H members about geology using the Ithaca gorges and the the Field House climbing wall. The group also will help plan Goodall's visit to Cornell next year.
"All of these things really came out of the summit, all of these ideas for partnerships, for activities, for goals. It was a real inspiration," said Bloom. "We're always looking for motivated people who can help us get things done."
The group meets biweekly and has about 30 active members, with 140 on a mailing list. Interested people can contact Bloom at edb3@cornell.edu.
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