Flying a Huge hot air baloon at Madatech, opened Earth Day events in Haifa
Earth Day events took place on Thursday, 22.04.10 in many cities around the world. The central event at Madatech was flying a 30 meters high hot air balloon by Israel's minister of science, Prof. Daniel Hershkovits, and Haifa's Mayor, Mr. Yona Yahav.
About 210 5th to 6th grade students from schools around Haifa participated in "The Energetic Needle" competitions, that involved energy cycling, green electricity, finding a slogan for the environment and recycling paper. Simultaneously, Madatech hosted green crafts and demonstrations for junior high students, among them environmental sculpturing using recycled materials.
Haifa's environmental contract, which was signed by citizens, students, Ministry of Environmental Defense representatives and schools' representatives, serves also as Israel's national environmental agreement. Haifa's Youth Council chairman handed it to Israel's Industrialists Association representative. The contract was also printed on magnets and was handed to about 15000 students in schools across Haifa.
At 12:00 pm AMAN volunteers, in cooperation with Madatech's Moobile Labs held a relay race to pass the contract between schools in Haifa. Following the race, it was submitted, signed, to the Haifa Bay Municipal Association for Environmental Protection.
Further, the winners of the nature photography contest were announced by the head of education department in Haifa Municipality, Ms. Rachel Metuki.
The winning photo will represent Israel in a special international photography exhibition at the Chabot Museum in Auckland, California and will be on display until October 2010.
At 08:00 pm, Earth's Hour was announced, implementing a gradual process of shutting out all the lights in Israel and around the world. This action attempted to convey a global message, that everyone can take part in this small but meaningful action and turn off the lights for an hour, thus contributing to a significant decrease of the damage done to earth.
The events were honored by the presence of Israel's minister of science, and are held in cooperation with Haifa Municipality and the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
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