OUR WORK
Rainbow Club was created to help spread environmental awareness in the Charlottesville area. Since our founding in 2017 we've hosted trash cleanups, taught classes, organized school gardens, and more! We work with students, teachers, and local residents to spread environmental awareness and help the planet one act at a time.
2023
In 2023, co-founders Reed and Madeline organized an Earth Day trash cleanup for residents of their neighborhood. They collected donations from local businesses focused on sustainability and held a raffle for participants of the clean up.
Reed also started a recycling campaign at his middle school. He created posters and arranged for a guest speaker to speak to students about the importance of recycling and how to do it correctly. The campaign worked really well and both students and staff began to recycle better.
Reed and Madeline at the cleanup.
A poster made by one of Reed's students to promote recycling.
2022
In 2022 Reed ran a five week environmental club at his middle school. Students met on Fridays to learn about topics such as recycling, pollution, climate change and greenhouse gasses, and sustainability. They also met a guest speaker from the Community Climate Collaborative who talked to them about environmental activism. The students created posters and art based on what they learned.
2021
In 2021 Reed worked with the science teacher at his middle school to run a virtual Rainbow Club elective. Students who took the class learned about environmental justice, endangered animals, organizations working to help the planet, and more! They created signs with environmental messages as their final project.
To celebrate Earth Day, Reed and Madeline's family cleaned up trash around a creek that runs near their neighborhood.
The sign Reed made.
Chalk art made by Reed and Madeline for Earth Day.
2020
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, co-founders Reed and Madeline organized Earth Day and Arbor Day activities for students at their elementary school to do at home. They challenged kids to create chalk art reflecting the Earth Day theme, climate action, and poems about their favorite tree.
Reed, Madeline, and the rest of their family also organized a trash cleanup for their neighborhood. Participants picked up trash from the neighborhood retention pond and it looked much better afterword.
2019
In 2019, Rainbow Club worked with the PTO at Reed and Madeline's elementary school to host a day of caring where families could come and clean up the school grounds. We had a great turn out of about 50 people who planted and mulched garden beds, picked up trash, and painted kindness rocks.
The PTO also helped Rainbow Club create a "Peace Garden". We collected donations of flower bulbs from local nurseries and each student had an opportunity to plant one. We planted about 500 total flower bulbs!
On November 15, America Recycles Day, we brought recycling bins into the school lobby to encourage students and staff to recycle.
The finished Peace Garden.
A sign about what can and can't be recycled that we made for November 15.
The Rainbow Recycling Row.
2018
In 2018, one year after Rainbow Club was founded, we worked with staff at Reed and Madeline's elementary school to start the Rainbow Recycling Row. Students and teachers could drop off markers and crayons that they didn't need any more to be recycled by Crayola and The Crayon Initiative.
We also partnered with Full Circle, Inspired Child, a non-profit organization to spread awareness about the environment at the Kid & Nature Festival in Charlottesville.