TRAVERSE CITY — Norte and the Life Skills Center have been working together since the fall to help teach students about safety while biking, but recently, Carter‘s Compost became involved.
“We were just thinking about how to collaborate and make it more purposeful,” Life Skills Center Special Education Teacher Lena Scarpace said. “So we added Carter‘s Compost because we’re doing composting in our classroom. So we thought, why not join all the students and all the organizations together and make it purposeful.”
Student Grace even also shared details about the partnership.
“At the Life Skill Center We have been biking with Norte, and we’ve also been picking up some Carter Composting,” she said.
On every Monday for the rest of this month, between 12:30-1:30 p.m., students will use Norte’s bikes to pick up buckets of compost from Traverse City homes, a curbside service of Carter‘s Compost.
“We want all of them to be healthy and connected to their community and independent,” Norte School Coordinator Abbey Kaufman said. “By creating this program and this opportunity for them, we’re creating chances for them to maybe work for Carter’s Compost and maybe be cyclists for Carter’s, or just to do this for fun and have a great hobby that gets them outside.”
For the Life Skills Center, it’s about students growing as people.
”So the students are working on employment, self-regulation and rec and leisure," Scarpace said. “One of the biggest things is we want to teach them that they can do hard things and that their disability does not define who they are. We really are proud of them. And we are so honored to be a part of Norte and Carter’s Compost.
“Today, everybody rode at least two miles, if not more,” Kaufman said. “They were picking up their compost independently, waving to neighbors along the way and making really safe choices.”