Aquidneck Land Trust & St. Michael's Country Day School Conservation Collaboration

Newport, RI (April 12, 2013) – We are excited to announce, on Tuesday, April 9th, the Aquidneck Land Trust ("ALT") and St. Michael's Country Day School signed a Conservation Collaboration Agreement recognizing that young people in particular have a major stake in what Aquidneck Island's environment will be like and that the future quality of our environment is in the process of being determined now.  The Conservation Collaboration between the two organizations will work to highlight for the school-aged children the impact they can have on our surrounding communities!  ALT will work with the St. Michael's staff and children by partnering for clean ups as well as in class lectures and field surveying.   

St. Michael's, located on 7 acres off of Memorial Boulevard in Newport, is an independent, nondenominational, coeducational school for children from preschool through grade eight. The school has a current enrollment of 214 students hailing from Aquidneck Island, Jamestown, South County, Saunderstown, Tiverton, and Bristol.

Some of the key provisions of the Conservation Collaboration Agreement follow:

     1.     St. Michael's School will work towards raising the necessary funds by June 2013, so that all of its students can become members of ALT through ALT's Young Friends Membership Program;
     2.     ALT and St. Michael's will collaborate on an Earth Day 2013 cleanup of Albro Woods in Middletown;

     3.     ALT staff will provide educational presentations to St. Michael's School students about land conservation; and
     4.     ALT will provide Saint Michael's School with the natural science lesson plans ALT developed for its Sakonnet Greenway Trail, the largest nature trail on Aquidneck Island, as this trail area is a spectacular and free living classroom.

Chuck Allott, ALT Executive Director, had this to say about the partnership, "We are very excited about this year's Young Friends collaboration with St. Michael's.  The one thing we know is that these will be our leaders and land stewards in the future.  It's important to educate them now about the importance of protecting the natural environment through land conservation.  Besides getting out on the land with kids is just fun!" 

Whitney Slade, St. Michael's Head of School, shared this sentiment, "As a school on Aquidneck Island we take great pride in being positive members of our community. This partnership with ALT is a perfect way to support this aspect of our mission, and it fits in well with elements of our science curriculum. What's better than teaching kids about land preservation, it is a win-win. Thank you for making this happen."

If you would like to support St. Michael's Young Friends by sponsoring a student, you can do so by going to www.ailt.org and making a $15 gift of membership.  You can email Courtney Huth at chuth@ailt.org to let her know your gift is for sponsorship.  You can sponsor more than 1 student if you would like!  Checks can be mailed to Aquidneck Land Trust, 790 Aquidneck Avenue, Middletown RI  02842 with the note "St. Michael's School Sponsorship" in the memo of the check. 

Conservation Collaboration Agreements were also signed by the Pennfield School in Portsmouth in April 2011 and the Paul W. Crowley East Bay Met School in Newport signed in April 2012.  Hopefully other Aquidneck Island schools will also join the cause.

ALT's time-sensitive mission is to conserve Aquidneck Island's open spaces and natural character for the lasting benefit of our community. The organization has conserved 2,418.95 acres on 68 properties across Aquidneck Island since its founding in 1990. ALT is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and the first land trust in Rhode Island to have received national accreditation. For more information, visit www.AquidneckLandTrust.org