Field Trip!

One of the advantages to being self-employed is that I get to be more involved in my boys' activities, particularly anything that is going on during the daytime. Case in point: Yesterday #2 Son's class had a field trip down to Conservation Consultants Inc. (CCI) on Pittsburgh's South Side. CCI is a company that consults with small business and homeowners to make their buildings more eco-friendly. They do educational programs for schools, to teach kids all the ways you can improve a building. The photo shows their rooftop garden, made of of trays of desert plants. The garden provides insulation by eliminating the amount of dark rooftop that absorbs heat in the summer. Because the trays hold the rainwater, the garden also minimizes contaminated water runoff from the roof.

For the field trip they needed some parents to go along as chaperones. Since I didn't have anything else scheduled for the day of the field trip, I volunteered to go along. Of course I took a camera and flash along to take some photos. I figured the school could always use some for their website. Granted I wasn't getting paid for it, but I viewed it as an opportunity to do some free marketing as well as hone my camera skills. But all of that was secondary to the smile on my son's face when I first walked into his classroom...