IT WAS one of those summer art workshops that abound whenever school is out. But this one, which had their "graduation" of sorts last week at Trellis Restaurant in Matina Balusong is part of an ongoing advocacy of an unassuming local artist cum art-teacher, who carries his message of conservation in all his endeavors.

To make the graduation more festive, and yes, tummy-filling, it was held along with the first birthday celebration of Priya, the granddaughter of artist-teacher Ric Obenza.

The artworks explored colors, movements, and yes, flowers and animals. But most of all, the artworks reflected the lessons about the environment that the young artists, with ages ranging from 5 to 12, learned along the way.

The graduation program was capped with the "thumbprinting" by the children and their parents on a mounted board that Ric turned into a painting of a tree and two children holding seedlings. It's a covenant for the environment, Obenza explained.

The children, young as they are, already had inkling on how taking care of the creatures around them can, not only provide them with images to paint, but, also prevent environmental disasters.

Taking care of the birds, Anna, 5, said can encourage propagation of plants and trees.

"At hindi na magbaha (And it will no longer flood)," she said.

Prodded on the relationship of birds and trees and floods, another child Francis explained that this is because as birds eat fruits, they also scatter the fruits' seeds.

"Nahuhulog ang mga seeds sa lupa (The seeds fall on the ground)," he said.

To this, Betty Cabazares, executive director of Kinaiyahan Foundation Inc., who cut the ceremonial ribbon, said it is never too early to impart environmental consciousness among children.

"Gagmay pa lang sila, nakatuon na sila kung unsa ang nasa ilang palibot (Even though they are still very young, they are already aware of what is around them)," Cabazares said in encouraging the parents to continue with what Obenza has taught the children in the workshop that started last April 5 until April 28 in Calinan.

Obenza has been teaching children for decades now.

He taught art in Calinan National High School in 1976 until he resigned in 1992 to focus on his advocacy.

"Mas daghan pa ko natudluan paghuman nako resign (I was able to teach more children after I resigned)," he said.

His workshops require very little expenditure on the part of the parents as he only asks them to buy the needed materials.

Through the years, Obenza has become a ubiquitous presence in Calinan, with his camera and paints. The Philippine Eagle Center in Malagos is among his regular venues for art workshops, such that when Ms Cabazares asked the children what kind of birds they are acquainted with, eagle was the first named.

Teaching art, he said, was a promise he made to himself as a child in what was then a very remote village called Sirib in Calinan District.

"Sa panahon nako, wala ko nakaagi nianing mga art workshop bisan nga interesado gyud unta ko kaayo sa art. Wala man gani mutudlo og art sa eskwelahan kay ang mga maestra, wala man pud kabalo (When I was young, I never had the chance to join any art workshop. Art was not taught in our school then because there were no art teachers)," he told the parents and children. He learned on his own, he said.

Thus, he had since aspired to be an art teacher, to be able to teach children what he had longed for but has been deprived of.

And with it he inculcated too the care for nature.

The children's party that followed had the regular trappings of balloons and cakes and games. But what stood out was the parlor game that saw the children scrambling around to gather the candy wrappers they earlier threw around.

The one who gathered the most number of candy wrappers won a prize; and yet another lesson was imparted.

Even the loot bags carried a message.

"April 29, 2010, it's my 1st birthday, please plant a tree for me - Priya," was written with crayon and marker pen on the canvas recyclable lootbag that also served as the birthday memento.

Indeed, even a children's party can serve as a venue to impart the importance of caring for the environment and the lessons can be served in a fun way. Ric Obenza had just showed us how.