ARLINGTON, Va., - The Army National Guard combined Earth Day and Take Your Child to Work Day to educate Guard children about how to preserve the world that they live in.
"Earth Day is about protecting our natural resources, not for old people, but for young people that are going to inherit this planet," said Army Col. Christine Stark, chief of staff of the Army National Guard, who kicked off the day's events by telling children and adults what the Guard has done to help protect and conserve our environment and natural resources.
"Soldiers serve to protect and defend this great country," she said, "and this includes our environment."
The Army National Guard manages 1.3 million acres of natural resources, which include habitats for 70 threatened or endangered species.
"The bald eagle, timber wolf, and kit fox are a few of the species that the Guard is helping to keep from being eliminated from the Earth," she said.
The Guard is not only protecting and preserving wildlife and natural resources, but it is also rethinking the way that it constructs new buildings.
"The Guard has come a long way to green itself," said Charles Chamberlain of the Army Guard's environmental division. "We are currently adding on to this building using the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design."
The LEED system is an internationally recognized certification process used to recognize and rate buildings that are built with "green" in mind.
"All of our buildings are beginning to be designed as green buildings," said Chamberlain, "moving away from non-renewable fuels, to more renewable fuels like solar and wind energy."
Earth Day began in 1970 as a way to teach citizens of the world the importance of taking care of the planet that we inhabit, and the Guard has observed this day since the beginning.
"The Guard has been involved the whole time," said Chamberlain. "It started out small, and it has gotten larger as [the years] have gone on."
"Here at the Army National Guard, we put on a celebration every year, the fourth Thursday of April," said Chamberlain. "We invite all kinds of speakers and vendors to come in and present wildlife and talk about conserving our natural resources."
"By combining it with Take Your Child to Work Day, we get [several] children and parents in the building, interacting with the wildlife and learning about natural resources and how the National Guard preserves those resources," he said.
The more that children learn about the environment, the better off the planet will be in the future and the longer our resources will last us, he said.
Guard leaders said they hope all citizens take the Earth Day messages of preservation and conservation with them every day of the year.
"We have a whole staff of environmental people and biologists that work to conserve natural resources and protect wild spaces," he said. "We hope that the children and parents learn today that the National Guard actually does work to conserve and protect our resources.
"It's important to conserve our wild spaces and manage wisely our natural resources. When you do that, you have a better place to live and you have a better life."