Cooperstown Crier - Your Source for Hometown News - Cooperstown, Baseball Hall of Fame

Local News

Discussion

COMMENTING ON STORIES:

Welcome to our story comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including the unpopular ones. We only ask that you keep your conversations clean, civil and on the topic of the story you are commenting on.

Coinciding with our websites redesign, we launched our new story comments feature through Disqus.

Disqus gives users the ability to log into our story comments feature so that they may be able to track their conversations, receive emails when their comments get a reply or to even have your comments update onto your Facebook or Twitter accounts.

For the time being, our story comments feature will continue to have the ability to post comments anonymously. We reserve the right to require registration in the future using your name and verified email address.

Not all comments are deemed printable. Some are disqualified at the newspaper’s discretion for a number of different reasons. Please follow our Online Rules of Conduct at all times.

RULES OF CONDUCT:

We reserve the right to remove comments that are unacceptable, to wit:

1. False and inacurate statements.
2. Personal attacks. Explicit name-calling.
3. Harassing, harmful, vulgar, obscene and defamatory language.
4. Threatening statements or statements that suggest violence.
5. Hate speech of any kind.
6. Intolerant comments on religion, race, age, gender, sexual preference or disabilities.
7. Accusations of criminal activity.
8. Content that is harmful to children and minors in any way.
9. References to any type of sexual activity and other private matters.
10. Random and inflammatory statements that are off topic.
11. Advertising of any kind.
12. Typing in all caps.

WE ENCOURAGE REASONABLE AND COURTEOUS COMMENTS THAT:

1. Create conversation on issues of interest and concern to fellow readers and local community members.
2. Express opinions and contrarian views.
3. Stimulate debate with respectful language.
4. Stay within the boundaries of these rules.

WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SUSPEND OR TERMINATE ACCESS FOR:

1. Violating any of these Online Rules of Conduct.
2. Deliberately disrupting discussions with repetitive messages, meaningless messages or spam.
3. Misrepresentation of identity or impersonating another user.

WE WELCOME:

1. Flagging violations of these rules that you observe to our attention.

MONITORING:

We monitor comments regularly Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Approval of comments outside of this time will be sporadic.
comments powered by Disqus
February 2, 2012

Entrepreneurship program receives funding to go green

BY MICHELLE MILLER

STAFF WRITER

Cooperstown’s after-school educational program TREP$ has been given an incentive to go green this year. The program, in which students develop their own products or services and then sell them at a “flea market” style marketplace, has been awarded $700 through The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s New York Energy $mart Students Program.

NYSERDA has recognized 20 energy efficiency projects developed by kindergarten through 12th-grade educators across the state for their potential to increase students’ knowledge about energy efficiency and sustainability at home.

Marcy Birch, one of the TREP$ workshop facilitators, said an entrepreneureal spin was added and is how TREP$ qualified for the funding.

According to a NYSERDA media release, awards were made to educators based on creativity in discussing energy efficiency at home and the extent to which projects help students take a leadership role in both school and community efforts. The release said extra points were awarded to schools with greater than 50 percent of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch and for projects adopting a multidisciplinary approach involving two or more subject areas.

In the release, NYSERDA President and CEO Francis J. Murray Jr. congratulated educators for developing engaging projects to prepare the next generation to be stewards of the energy future and environment.

“Creative, hands-on projects are a wonderful way for students of all ages to learn about energy efficiency and sustainability whils incorporating the lessons into their daily lives,” he said in the release. According to Birch, if a student decides to offer an ‘energy smart’ product, he will be reimbursed for his raw materials. She said she knows of at least five students who plan on taking advantage of the funds.

“It’s at least got them thinking about how to reduce or reuse,” she said.

Carina Franck, TREP$ chairwoman, said she thinks it would be “neat” to have an all or almost all green marketplace in the near feature. It is not a new concept, but the funding received helps put an emphasis on thinking green and makes it more appealing for the students, Franck  aid.

“Our hope is to increase the amount of kids going green,” she said. “It is not only good environmentally, but it gets them looking at things in a different way. It encourages them to be more creative.”

For example, Franck showed off Nick Sharratt’s drinking glasses he is making out of glass bottles. He has a glass cutting kit that cuts off the tops and then he smoothes the edges with sand paper to make the glasses, she explained.

During a recent workshop, sixth-graders Bethany Robinson and Natalie Shieber showed off a bag that they had sewn together out of a dog food bag. The girls were discussing their product ideas with Tim Haney, owner of the Cooperstown Bat Company, who was there as one of several mentors for the children.

“We could make lunch bags, grocery bags and purses,” the girls said. “We will call them gbags, which will stand for going green.”

Bethany said her mom is a teacher so she is going to have her ask others to collect reusable bags for them to use. She said they also plan to make a visit to the SPCA and local veterinarian clinics.

Natalie said Haney was helpful because he discussed how to price an item with them. “We believe $3 is a fair price,” she said.

However, Haney told the girls if they sell a lot that means there is a demand for the item and the price may need to be lowered. He said not to  increase the price during the marketplace, but it would be something to consider for the following year. The girls said they have always been interested in business and like spending time together. They said they worked on a sciences project together and wanted to do something again.

Nicole Idelson and Matilda Francis, also sixth-graders, are using Ziploc bags to line fabric to create reusable snack and sandwich bags. Matilda said they came up with their ideas by searching online for ways to recycle everyday objects.

The girls said they think they will have to sell their product  for $5 to make a profit. Their expensesinclude the plastic bags, Velcro, thread, fabric and time.

The girls sat down with mentor Susie Knight who used to own Global Traders, an import store in Cooperstown. Knight said they talked about ways of getting their costs down.

Matilda said Knight helped them come up with more ways to recycle. For example, she said they could use old clothing for fabric and take a trip to the local thrift shop.

The Parent Teacher Organization began offering TREP$ three years ago. It is a six-week program that was created by Pamela deWaal and Hayley Romano, two certified teachers who live in West Milford, N.J. Their then- 10-year-old sons decided to go into business together selling hand-stamped wrapping paper at an adult vendor night at school. The boys sold out and shared their story with peers.

The Cooperstown program began as an offering to middle school students, but the outreach has expanded. Franck is calling this year a transitional year.

She said having the sixth graders in the elementary building has impacted how organizers are marketing the program. She said getting high schoolers interested is also a challenge.

“It has been very challenging to reach out to the kids now that there are no community meetings,” Franck said. According to Franck, TREP$ provides another option for students who are not into sports.

“The things that are taught are used in the everyday world and we want to stress that,” Franck said. “Students learn how to write promotional material and learn math skills such as making change. We try to make connections with what they are learning in school and will use in every day life. These things don’t just happen within the walls at school.”

Franck said once students participate in all the  workshops they are allowed to come sell the same or new product again each year thereafter. There is a $5 market fee. She said the program is being offered to fifth though 12th, although the oldest is a 10th-grader this year.

There are 31 new students participating in TREP$ this year. Franck said it is hard to tell how many returning students there will be until she receives a business plan from each of them. The marketplace will be held during the Cooperstown Winter Carnival as in the past. Students will have their booths open from 1 to 3 p.m. on Feb. 12, in the middle/high school gymnasium.

Text Only
Local News

New Today!