Did you know that the Chesapeake Bay has an effect on every Assembly in the state of Virginia? On August 6th, we had our fun event of the Brock Environmental Center with our Grand Worthy Advisor, Libby. Right at the beginning, we played a game where we had to ask someone what their name was, where they were from, and what their favorite Bay animal is. When I was partnered with my friend Sami, I found out that her favorite Bay animal is a crab. When we finished with that game, the instructors, Kayla and Molly, put us into four groups and we did a scavenger hunt around the center. We got to find out how they use their energy, electricity, and water differently from ours. I thought it was very interesting to see and hear how they generate their power and save water here. I found out that the water they use there is all rainwater and it is totally drinkable and very efficient to use just like the water that comes out of your very own sink. Next, we all went out on a walk to explore the Bay. On the way, we found a Night Herring, an Egret, some snails, and even a baby turtle. We also got to learn what the marsh soil is made of and why it is important to the bay and its creatures. When we started heading back, we stopped and talked about what pollutes our bay. The Rainbow Girls learned that nutrients were the number one cause of the pollution in our bay. Some nutrients are good but too much could be very unhealthy to the bay and all the animals. To help us understand what they do at the BEC to stop some of these nutrients, they showed us a very fun game. What we had to do was try to get from one side to another without getting tagged by the Bay Saver. It was such a fun game and we had a hard time getting to the other side with that Bay Saver stopping us. After we played that very fun game, we headed down to the beach to learn how to catch sea animals and how to study them. They showed us how to use a special net to catch the sea creatures and how to pick them up without hurting them. All the girls got to test it out and we got to learn about some of the animals. When we finished catching them, we released them all back into the water. Then, we headed right back to the center and ate our sandwiches from Taste Unlimited. After we ate, we finished off the day with painting on post cards. On my post card, I made a beach and put Libby’s theme on it. Overall, I had so much fun at the BEC learning about the Bay and being able to hang out with my Rainbow Sisters.
