Albuquerque elementary school students plant flowers at the Alvarado Transit Center

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Earth Day first started in 1970, and in celebration, the City of Albuquerque teamed up with some special helpers to beautify a part of Downtown.

Students from Mr. Chacon’s 4th-grade class at Lew Wallace Elementary School spent part of the day beautifying Alvarado Transportation Center.

“It’s a day to enjoy the earth and help out the community,” said Isaac.

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For the first time, students got some hands-on learning experience as they helped put roughly 100 flowers. “The plants, they get to help you breathe,” said Zia, a fourth grader.

“I’m hoping they have an understanding of the importance of pollination, photosynthesis, and the exchange of oxygen-CO2 cycle,” said teacher Victor Chacon.

Mr. Chacon said it’s the first time many of his students have been able to do this type of activity as many of them have only ever watered plants.

“A lot of the kids live in the city so they don’t have experience actually planting, and some students have never been on a bus, so we gotten the joy of riding a city bus,” said Chacon.

The city is thankful for the help.

“I think the main thing is getting them to realize that even though they’re little, they have a really big impact in our community,” said ABQ Ride Marketing and Communications Coordinator Megan Holcomb.

The city also put up an Earth Day plaque for the class. When the students went back to class, the did normal class with an Earth Day theme and also watched an Earth Day documentary.

“I hope that as a society, that we really realize the importance of Earth Day and continue it on throughout not just on Earth Day but every other day, have the opportunity to plant and make the earth more beautiful,” said Chacon.

The city and the school hope they can keep this tradition going for years to come.

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