FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Inner-City, Suburban and Rural Youth Collaborate for Environmental Project on April 25

(Minneapolis, April 16)—On Saturday, April 25, from 8:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m., approximately 56 inner-city and suburban youth representing the “SALTeam,” which is comprised of students from Edina High School, Crosby-Ironton High School and Volunteers of America-Minnesota Service Adventure Leadership Team High School, will work together to complete an environmental project in observance of Earth Day and Global Youth Service Day.

Together, inner-city, suburban and rural youth of diverse backgrounds and cultures, including students who are East African immigrants, will work together to remove buckthorn, plant trees, spread wood chips, clear trails and cleanup trash as a part of the Creek Valley Environmental Project (CVEP).  The CVEP initiative is aimed at restoring the area to its natural habitat and includes future creation of an environmental learning center and outdoor classrooms for river water analysis studies, forest studies, and prairie restoration activities.  CVEP will benefit the community by providing access to an area for environmental studies, recreation, exploration and exercise.

The April 25 project will take place along Nine Mile Creek located on the grounds of Edina High School located at 6754 Valley View Road, Edina, MN  55439.  The project will be based on the east side of the school near the loading docks and activities will take place in the nature area located northeast of the school. 
 
Joining the students for this environmental project are 20 employee volunteers from Comcast who are participating in “Comcast Cares Day,” a company-wide initiative and day of service to benefit the larger community.

Edina Mayor Jim Hovland is scheduled to visit the project site and speak with students and volunteers in the morning.

The SALTeam is a unique collaboration between the suburban Edina High School, the urban Volunteers of America-Minnesota Service Adventure Leadership Team High School and the rural Crosby-Ironton High School. Using a combination of extreme adventure and outdoor activities, the SALTeam program teaches leadership skills and promotes teamwork through service-learning activities.  SALTeam members are engaged in leadership through responsibility for logistics, planning and implementation of adventure and service expeditions.  In addition, students from both schools benefit from the opportunity to build relationships with people of different backgrounds.  The SALTeam has been so successful that leaders were recently asked to present its model to the National Youth Leadership Council Service Learning Conference in Minneapolis in 2008.  As a result of that presentation, the SALTeam has become a state-level project for integrating service-learning and adventure programming, as well as for connecting urban, suburban and rural schools.

About Edina High School/Edina Public Schools
The mission of the Edina Public Schools, working in partnership with the family and the community, is to educate individuals to be responsible, lifelong learners who possess the skills, knowledge, creativity, sense of self-worth, and ethical values necessary to thrive in a rapidly changing, culturally diverse, global society.

About Volunteers of America-Minnesota Service Adventure Leadership Team High School
Volunteers of America-Minnesota Service Adventure Leadership Team High School is a Minneapolis Public Schools specialty school, serving grades 10 through 12, which features an experiential and environmental themed program that focuses on leadership development and community-based service learning.  The school’s students are typically those who may benefit from hands-on, experiential learning, have a passion for outdoor adventure and environmental activities, and/or may have been unsuccessful in traditional classroom settings.

About Volunteers of America - Minnesota
Volunteers of America-Minnesota is a nonprofit organization founded in 1896 which offers a wide variety of services to more than 27,000 children, adolescents and their families, students, older adults, persons with disabilities and special needs, and ex-offenders each year.  It is one of the oldest, largest and most comprehensive human service organizations in the state and has more than 60 programs, 900 employees and 4,000 volunteers.  Volunteers of America has a rich history of developing innovative, quality programs to meet emerging social issues and prides itself on sponsoring programs which are able to articulate explicitly the outcomes achieved in its program participants' lives.  For more information about Volunteers of America of Minnesota, visit www.voamn.org, or call (952) 945-4000. 

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