250 KLANG VALLEY KIDS GO GREEN WITH LEO

Thursday, 8 October 2009

250 KLANG VALLEY KIDS GO GREEN WITH LEO

It’s never too early to learn about the importance of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle – this is what 250 children and their parents discovered in line with the growing awareness and concern over the environment.

In an effort to educate the young on the significance of saving the environment, Sunway Pyramid released its mascot, Leo the Lion, to a school and three different kindergartens around the Klang Valley.

The children of SMK Bandar Sunway (Special Education), Tadika Krisaliz in Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, Tadika Early Learning Centre in Taman Desa, Old Klang Road and Small Wonder Children’s House in SS19, Subang Jaya each received exceptional guidance on separating trash and planting their own green plant.

Leo visited one school each week for an hour and a half with a set of recycling bins throughout this one month project; teaching the children how to separate paper, aluminium cans, plastic and glass.

“It’s best to teach children at a young age of 4 or 5 the importance of recycling as they absorb knowledge easily at this point of their lives and by practising recycling at such tender ages, we hope that they can maintain the habit as they grow,” said Kevin Tan, Chief Operating Officer of Sunway Pyramid.

Kevin also added that parents play a very important role in making sure that the habit of recycling kicks in as a recycle-friendly home will further encourage the act of recycling.

Some of these children may even put certain parents and adults who do not practise recycling at home to shame - most of them were able to identify the materials of their trash easily in addition to identifying words such as ‘cans’, ‘paper’ ‘plastic’ and ‘glass’ on the recycling bins.

After going through the exercise of separating trash, the children were then taught to plant their own money plant using plastic bottles, soil, and Starbucks coffee grounds as fertiliser. With the help of their nursery caretakers, the children were able to bring home a bottle-pot of money plant each as well as awareness on how to keep our country green. They were also given a ‘magic bean’, a bean which will grow into a plant with a message, to be sowed with their parents at home.
The environment is not constraint only to the greens, thus the Sunway Lagoon Wildlife Park brought its ‘friends’ to meet the children. Yoko the white cockatoo, Babloo the Racoon and Jack the Burmese albino python made their way to greet the children in high spirits. The children were then educated about the animals’ way of life and the importance of ensuring their survival in their natural habitat.

In return for the children’s attentiveness on the ‘green’ lessons, they were then treated to two J.Co Doughnuts each.

Sunway Pyramid recycling bins were contributed to each school to maintain the recycling routine.

‘Go Green with Leo’ is under the Sunway Pyramid’s Earth Pal campaign, an effort dedicated to generate more environmental awareness amongst community within the Klang Valley.