Setting an example – In late 2016, we received a call from Dr. Robert Christie, a Hanover Conservancy member and long-time Connecticut River Commissioner, asking about our student outreach programs. He had just attended our showing of The Messenger and was moved by the film’s message: that we must all take action now to direct our planet towards a sustainable future.
Inspired to “think globally, act locally,” Dr. Christie made a significant gift to the Conservancy’s Community Engagement program, from the Robert William Christie, M.D. Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. This has enabled our staff to partner with the Richmond Middle School and Hanover’s after-school program for hands-on environmental education.
Exploring the Connecticut River – Dr. Christie’s love of the river and years of service to the Connecticut River Joint Commissions inspired a number of activities for Richmond Middle School students. We work with Richmond Middle School 6th grade science teachers to provide in-class presentations, a film and a field trip to the Connecticut River each spring. Students learn how the river in their backyard shaped settlement and industry in New England, grasp the massive size of the CT River’s watershed, and find out that Hanover was once under a mile of ice, then inundated by glacial Lake Hitchcock! This unit culminates with hands-on experiments on water quality, erosion and other river processes at the Kendal Riverfront Park, thanks to a new agreement for public access to the river there.
