CORAL GABLES, FL – March 24, 2009 – Caroline Lewis, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden’s director of education who oversees the Fairchild Challenge, a South Florida-based environmental outreach program, recently announced the official launch of an initiative to spread the Fairchild Challenge’s successful template across all points of the globe as part of its commitment to foster environmental awareness, scholarship and stewardship in teenagers and pre-teens.

The initiative kicked off in February with a series of activities that included:

● A “Satellite Partners Training Workshop” to help environmental educators and leaders from parks, botanical   gardens, zoos and museums throughout the U.S. as well as from Brazil, Costa Rica and other countries, to establish a Fairchild Challenge at their respective sites

● The 7^th Annual Fairchild Challenge Student Congress, an annual event in which students from South Florida high schools debate critical topics and weigh science against economic and political issues. During the six-hour event this year, 101 students from 22 South Florida public and private high schools debated today’s most pressing environmental topics, including: a bill requiring all fast-food industries to use a minimum of 75 percent recycled content materials for all food packaging by 2010; a bill to impose a mandatory “carbon emissions offset tax” on all commercial and private flights; and a bill to impose a “bag tax” on each consumer purchase that requires new paper and/or plastic bags to be distributed by retail stores in Miami-Dade County

In its seventh year of existence, the Fairchild Challenge is quickly growing to become one of the world’s most comprehensive and influential youth environmental education programs. The National Forum on Children and Nature, (NFCN), a high-profile campaign of the prestigious Conservation Fund, recently recognized it as a worldwide model for connecting youths with the environment in new and creative ways.

Designed by specialists at South Florida’s world-renowned Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, the Fairchild Challenge comprises a series of projects, contests and performances in which students may choose to participate. Participation is measured by a point system, with each school aiming to accrue enough points to receive the Fairchild Challenge Award at the annual award ceremonies in May. These Challenge options include:

• ● Writing opinion and research papers
  ● Performing songs and skits
  ● Creating gardens, artwork and newsletters
  ● Designing solar-powered devices
  ● Formulating “green” cuisine menus