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Sussex Academy Green Team engages students with Earth Day activities

At Sussex Academy’s Earth Day celebration April 24, organized by the high school’s Green Team, students learn about the local ecosystem from Jackie Knoll, manager of environmental education at the Delaware Center for the Inland Bays. Shown are (l-r) Grace Hearn, Case Ramey, Amelia Carmean and Ethan Hilderbrand. ELLEN MCINTYRE PHOTOS
Ellen McIntyre
May 5, 2026

The Sussex Academy High School Green Team put on a late Earth Day celebration April 24, at the school’s elementary campus outdoor area, offering educational environmental enrichment for the school’s youngest pupils.

The Green Team organized six stations, with activities like an Earth Day-themed scavenger hunt, rock painting, making a bird feeder out of a pine cone and making “dirt” cups out of pudding and other edible materials to learn about the layers of the earth.

The Delaware Center for the Inland Bays also had a station, where Environmental Education Manager Jackie Knoll taught the students about the local marine ecosystem and coastal habitats.

 

Mildren Jean proudly shows off her butterfly face paint at the Sussex Academy Earth Day celebration.
Sussex Academy students paint rocks at one of the stations. Shown are (l-r) Liam Arthur, Declan Jones, Ava Horsey, Kennedy Savage and Daphne Satey Perez.
Addison Catts, left, and Fallon Roos hold up a coffee filter butterfly they made at the Sussex Academy Green Team’s Earth Day celebration.
Mildren Jean, left, and Evelyn DeArmitt make pine cone bird feeders at one of the stations at the event.
Nadia Zahraouri, left, hugs high school student Biloxi Buffington.
At one of the stations, students make mini potted plants. Shown are (l-r) Keylor Castillo-Molina, Elle Pepper, Bryston Benton and Mahamad Mustafa.
Sussex Academy Green Team members (l-r) Leni Kuska, Genevieve Spencer, Jason Perez-Mazariegos and Vanesa Vazquez Castillo run a station where the kids learn about the layers of the earth by making “dirt” cups with pudding and other edible materials.
Ennett Houston makes a bird feeder out of a pine cone.
Emily Obertubbesing, left, paints a design on Abby Greenberg’s face.
Alessia Reynosa-Miguel holds up her potted plant.
Lenz Despinasse is focused on making a coffee filter butterfly.
At one of the stations, students make mini potted plants. Shown in front are Oliver Powell, left, and Henry Jackson. In back is Stephen Kuhns.

Ellen McIntyre is a reporter covering education and all things Dewey Beach. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Penn State - Schreyer Honors College in May 2024, then completed an internship writing for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In 2023, she covered the Women’s World Cup in New Zealand as a freelancer for the Associated Press and saw her work published by outlets including The Washington Post and Fox Sports. Her variety of reporting experience covers crime and courts, investigations, politics and the arts. As a Hockessin, Delaware native, Ellen is happy to be back in her home state, though she enjoys traveling and learning about new cultures. She also loves live music, reading, hiking and spending time in nature.