Dear Friends,
The attack on Waters Garden and Ecology are not about Mr. Leki, it is an attack on a locally grown, generations-long effort to heal our world and build our community.
The relentless demand to follow the rules is what has given us barren asphalt school grounds, traffic choked streets, bad air, filthy rivers, and disaster. And always, just behind the demand to conform, is the quiet letting of contracts, the influence of powerful entities that take our wealth and use it to make it theirs.
Please speak up to Save the Ecology Program and Save the Garden.
This Is What We Will Lose
https://www.watersecology.org/film_project/
Mr. Leki
Letters of Support
Dear Waters school, my name is Vladimir Von Klan and I was a student of Pete Leki at Waters. The program is an amazing way for young kids to learn about nature and the nature around us. Kids these days seem bound by technology and things that aren’t healthy for them. Learning about nature will help these kids. By destroying the garden and the program itself won’t be the smartest idea at all. You will be stripping these student from learning amazing things about our world. It sickens me that the human race takes away the beautiful things in nature to put in something man made. Let these students learn about nature. Let nature thrive. I beg of the school board and whom ever is in charge to not make this decision. I work for the California conservation corps and I fight to keep nature thriving. The things I have learned from Pete’s program has lead me to my work that I do now.
Vladimir Von Klan
Well heck. This information is equally unsettling and untrue.
I can’t assume the hours you spend “doing your job,” but what I know is that your regular school hours and irregular gardening maintenance schedule makes you a trusting and consistently present grown up acting as a mentor and supervisor in the misc hours where kids of all ages are most vulnerable. Not to mention the commitment you show to the Waters improvement project, the children it is intended to nurture and the community at large.
I also know that the knowledge and camaraderie you facilitate on your trips to sauganash is LITERALLY a cathartic camp-like experience. One that many families can’t begin to afford, and one that enhances the learning environment, through all areas of study. You take privilege out of the equation of being a steward to nature, something I have never seen before. I simple detail critical for the natural and emotional resurgence in communities everywhere.
I have no idea of a constructive way to support your efforts (money is insanely tight these days). But if there is any action I can take to assist in bringing light to this misstep, please do let me know.
Allison Pelsoci
I have known Mr. Leki since long before we even had children. There is no doubt that he has poured his entire heart and soul into the work that he does. He cares deeply about his work and your children. If you don’t believe this you don’t know him. His efforts, vision, and leadership have defined Waters Elementary. I have said this for many years. His work, with many others, has significantly changed the reputation of Waters for the better.
Perhaps we are taking a short term view to a long term issue. Investing in Mr. Leki and his ecology program focuses our children to consider broad issues. We need broad thinkers in our future and we need to start children down this path early. This is not just an ecology issue. Previous generations failed at this and we have an obligation to do better. A textbook version of ecology will fail to achieve this broad view.
It’s a matter of trust; I trust Mr. Leki to run the ecology program as he sees fit. I trust him to allocate his time as appropriate. I trust him to educate our children for the future. I trust that we are spending our money wisely with Mr. Leki. You simply cannot replace the impact that Mr. Leki has had today and long into the future. Trust him and fund him.
Robert Zacks