While the title C.R.E.E.P. at first sight surprises for a project title, it becomes clearer in full as C.R.E.E.P. stands for “Creative Recycling – an Eco Education Program”. The Visegrad fund supported project brings together four organizations dealing with sustainability and community outreach from Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. Sustainable CEU is a partner in the project and will conduct at least nine workshops in the upcoming weeks in elementary, middle and high schools as well as at CEU. The workshops that are developed by Sustainable CEU and the other three orgnaizations will promote conscious living and environmental education by using creative recycling as a fun way to pass on knowledge to young people. Ultimately, the project aims at creating a collection of 36 lesson plans that will be compiled in a book and online brochure (available in English, Hungarian, Czech, Slovakian, Polish) that will be distributed both to teachers, educators and volunteers to inspire the use of creative recycling as an interesting way to discuss environmental and sustainability topics with children, youth and adults and to encourage young people to be creative and more environmentally conscious. In order to make the most of the inter-cultural potential of the project all teams will meet in July to evaluate the project and share experiences. 
In Budapest, the first workshop took place on February 1st at the CEU Residence Center. CEU students learned how to create stylish notebooks from re-used materials. So far, five workshops have been organized in Budapest in a variety of settings and with different age groups. For example, students at the Hild József Middle School (the school that hosts the CEU’s gym) learned about energy conservation and constructed mini "energy vampires" which they could install on light switches and plugs in their homes as a reminder to save energy. A kindergarten group learned about local and seasonal food and created their own seasonal vegetable calendars. For the future Logan Strenchock, CEU’s Campus Environmental and Sustainability Officer, hopes that the University and Sustainable CEU can maintain the established contacts with the middle and high schools in the area for future projects and a further integration of CEU with its surrounding community. If you want to learn more about C.R.E.E.P. and the other teams check out www.creepvisegrad.wordpress.com or www.facebook.com/sustainableceu. In case you are interested in conducting your own workshop or assist with the ones already planned, please contact Logan Strenchock via email at strenchockL@ceu.hu.
Julia Michalsky, History, Germany
Photo1: CEU students creating their own notebooks from re-used materials.
Photo2: Elementary school children playing a vegetable memory game .
Photo3: Students at Hild József Middle School with their “energy vampires.”
All photos: Sustainable CEU.
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