August 29, 2008

A Message from Governor O'Malley

Dear Friends,

In many ways, the end of summer is a time of beginnings. Our family farms prepare for this year's harvest and Maryland's children return to school for another exciting year.

Through the Maryland Partnership for Children in Nature, our students will have even more opportunities to develop critical skills while building a sense of environmental stewardship. This partnership is charged with the responsibility of finding new and exciting ways to make environmental literacy a part of every child's education. The partnership has three important goals:

1. To develop a statewide environmental literacy plan for our schools.
2. To find new avenues and to build upon existing opportunities for connecting our children with nature.
3. To improve opportunities for under-served and at-risk youth.

Earlier this summer, students across Maryland participated in the Maryland Conservation Corps and the newly established Civic Justice Corps. These students contributed to projects within our communities and State Parks, developing skills and teamwork abilities that will benefit them in the classroom and soon in our world-class workforce.

Whether we're building greener school buildings or creating more opportunities for greener learning, it's been our hope that we can awaken in the so-called “wired generation” a renewed sense of shared responsibility toward the health of our environment.

To learn more about how we're expanding opportunities to our future generations, please visit our web site at www.gov.state.md.us today.

Martin O'Malley
Governor