Sandy Springs Teacher Recognized In National Harmony Hero Program

SANDY SPRINGS, GA — Riverwood International Charter School teacher, Patti Lawrimore, has been recognized as an EarthKind Harmony Hero for her efforts in educating more than 400 students about sustainability and the environment through her local experiential eco-education programs.

The Harmony Hero Award Program is part of EarthKind's 2021 Year of the Monarch national initiative. Through a rigorous nomination and selection process, the nation’s leading plant-based pest prevention brand is recognizing one K-12 teacher across the country each month who is committed to implementing eco-education initiatives into their curriculum, with the focus on getting kids outdoors and connected to nature at an impressionable age.

Each recognized teacher will receive complimentary in-service training from an entomologist on IPM practices for their school, helping them become safer, healthier places. They’ll also receive sustainable product essentials for eco-education and outdoor adventures, and will be considered for the grand prize of sending one teacher and three guests on an all-expense paid trip to Mexico in March 2022 to visit the Kingdom of Monarchs habitat, where they will witness the amazing migration of millions of butterflies.

For more than 25 years, Lawrimore’s efforts have been dedicated to providing hands-on experience for students to teach them about conservation and the preservation of resources. Over the past five years, she has turned overgrown and underutilized spaces at River International into outdoor nature education centers and gardens that focus on monarch and pollinator protection for kids to engage with nature and the curriculum. She encourages her students, who are preparing to go to college, to further study and develop a land ethic that will continue throughout their education and life, inspiring many to study environmental science, look at alternative farming, and delve into how we can improve water and soil quality.

“Students are exposed to multiple ways urban campus can reduce their ecological footprint, garden, small native planting, pollinator census, hydroponics and air, water and soil quality studies," Lawrimore said. "The wide variety of demonstrations we have on campus shows students what can be done, in hopes that they will ‘scale up’ these ideas to promote a more sustainable lifestyle. Students are exposed in hopes of becoming more aware citizens and business leaders.”

Throughout such a challenging time, Lawrimore’s efforts shed a bright light to young students, instilling passion about protecting and living in harmony with nature.

EarthKind published Patti Lawrimore’s Harmony Hero Video, which can be found online