Earth Day Groceries, 1999 Reports
This is Part 8, with reports from schools 701 -800.
Updated May 2,1999.
Use the Guestbook or email to send in your reports.
(Remember to include
your school name, location, and number of bags decorated)
The most recent reports are listed at the top of this page.
Patricia Majerczak
Sacred Heart School,
Lyndhurst, New Jersey 07071
Bags decorated: 600
Comments:
Our entire student body, grades Pre-K to 8, participated in the Earth Day Groceries
Project. Our local Shop Rite Supermarket was very supportive and gave us enough bags to
cover the entire school. Students and teachers were enthusiastic about the project and
did a great job in decorating the bags. The store manager and employees reported
that the customers were very excited about the project and people came in asking for the
"pretty earth day bags the kids made." The store has already told us that they are
looking forward to our participation in this project again next year. Perhaps next year
we will have each student decorate two bags each to spread our message even further.
Thanks so much for the great idea and informative web site! We were happy to be a
part of this neat project!
Mrs. Sandra Falsioni
Washington ElementarySchool
Lackawanna, NY
Bags decorated: 200
Comments: Local Quality Market more than happy to oarticipate. We are a Kindergarten only school of 200 students and it was a great Earth Day project that the whole school co do and enjoy. Thanks
Vickie Weiss
City School and Reid School (2 multiage programs)
City School, Grand Blanc, Michigan
Bags decorated: 185
Comments: We decorated grocery bags for Colony Market to use on Earth Day. The City School classes (1-2 and a 3-4-5) decorated 100 bags and Reid School (3-4-5) decorated 85 bags. Every student enjoyed decorating the bags and we were proud to be part of the Earth Day Groceries Project. We plan on making it a yearly event! Thanks for the article in Science & Children....we never would have known about it.
Art Mansky
Loomis Elementary School in Broomall, PA, decorated 350 bags with
rain forest awareness messages as part of a week-long study of tropical
rain forests. The kids had a great time decorating them. The bags were
donated by Acme Markets.
Paula Davis
Anchorage Montessori School
Anchorage, Alaska USA
Bags decorated: 39
Comments: 39 three to six year-olds from three classes decorated bags donated from a nearby Safeway store. Another store willingly donated bags, but the bags were already filled with advertisements. The children enjoyed the project. They also cleaned up trash around the neighborhood and learned how to make new paper from recycled scrap paper.
John Wayland Elementary School drew 300 bags on April 22, 1999 for
Bridgewater, VA, IGA Grocery Store
Kateness@aol.com
Mrs. Lori Austin
Forest Grove Elementary School
Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Bags decorated: 390
Comments: Forest Grove Elementary School participated in the Earth Day
bag project for the first time this year. Students from
Kindergarten to Gr. 7 decorated 390 bags for the IGA store
in their neighbourhood. Student council members played an
important role in presenting the project to each class,
counting out the bags and collecting them when completed.
The school's project was covered by two local newspapers,
the Burnaby Now and the News Leader. This created a lot of
excitement, particularly for the Gr. 2/3 class that got
their picture in the paper. The IGA reported a very
favourable response from customers throughout the week that
the bags were handed out. Overall, the project proved to be
a very positive, empowering experience for both students and
teachers. WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!
Trudy Trombley
Dupre Elementary School
Lubbock, Tx 79411
Bags decorated: 237
Comments: Students from grades 1-4 decorated bags and returned them to Lowe's grocery store on April 22
Whittier Elementary School in Everett Wa. decorated 438 bags for Earth
Day. This is our third year participating and we hope to continue next
year too!
Bill Weber
Chris Stanvick
Robinson Elementary
Westford, MA
Bags decorated: 300
Comments: Well, all bags were enthusiastically decorated by the children and distributed to local consumers. This project coincided with our multiple intelligence unit on recycling. What a simple yet creative and age-appropriate project this has been! I appreciate how you set up the project clearly and how you made so many resources available to us (such as ideas of what to write and draw, templates of the earth, etc.) Our students, teachers, and parents are sold on this activity, and I'm sure you can count on our participation again next year. Thank you for the great idea!
Linda S. Sizemore
East Greenwich Township Schools
Mickleton, New Jersey, U.S.A.
Bags decorated: 40
Comments:
We decorated the bags with our Beginner Kindness Buddies. The third graders helped with Beginners with their Spelling and everyone had a grand time. There are a big race to get to the grocery store to see if they could get a bag. It was a fun project and will make a great memory. Thank you for the idea!
This year was our school's first project concerning the care of our planet
in connection with a local grocery store. Dill's Food City donated 140
bags for our 140 preschool students. The bags were decorated by the
children representing different ideas concerning caring for our planet.
The bags were returned to the grocery store to be distributed as a reminder
to care for our world. Thanks for the great idea! We really enjoyed the
opportunity to be connected to other schools in our state and country in
representing such an important subject.
Christie M. Smith
Franklin County Preschool,
Lavonia, Georgia
Donna Close
Wilbur Wright Middle School
Cleveland, Ohio USA
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: I visited the Westown Finast Grocery Store just two blocks away from our school at the end of March. They were excited about this project and the prospect of helping educate both our students and the public. They gave us a bundle of five hundred bags. I disseminated them among the science teachers in our middle school. We brainstormed messages we wanted the public to know about the Earth and saving our environment. Then our sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students had a great time decorating the bags. We returned them to the Westown Finast with a banner that read "HAPPY EARTH DAY 1999!" We also included many photos of the students hard at work and of their finished products. The managers at Finast made a huge display across the front windows of their store. It was beautiful!
We thank the Westown Finast of Cleveland for their co-operation and enthusiasm in helping us with this project.
Caryn White
Hyatt Elementary
San Jacinto, CA
Bags decorated: 400
Mrs. Susan Walters
Murray School
Fort Bragg, North Carolina USA
Bags decorated: 495
Comments: Great project! This is our second year. We are a K-4 school (with 3 preschool classes)located on a military base. The commissary on post supplied us with the bags again this year.
Jeanne West
Reynolds Elementary School
Toledo, Ohio 43615
Bags decorated: 260
Comments:
We received a very positive response from many teachers in our building about this project. Students really enjoyed
doing this "random act of kindness". The stores
reported very positive customer response also.
Teresa Eberhard
Queen of Heaven School
West Seneca, NY, USA
Bags decorated: 375
Sherry Watorek
Cassadaga Elementary School and Fredonia State College
Cassadaga, New York
Bags decorated: 210
Comments:
This project idea was wonderful! The 2nd-5th grade students at Cassadaga Elementary School enjoyed decorating over 200 grocery bags donated by ShurFine grocery.
Patricia E. Connor
Maplewood Community Library
Rochester, NY
Bags decorated: 200
Comments:
In a joint program sponsored by Rochester City Schools #7, #34 and #41, the Maplewood Community Libary and the Charlotte Public Library (both branches of the Rochester Public Library System), families gathered on Saturday, April 10th for "Books Alive". The program consisted of storytelling, crafts, games and a visit from a clown. One of the activities was decorating bags from Wegmans Food and Pharmacy on Driving Park Ave. The bags were returned to Wegams for use on Thursday, April 22. 200 bags were decorated.
Marylin Gentz
Washington/Hoyt Elementary
Tacoma, WA
Bags decorated: 180
We had a school theme that our principal selected: Treat the Earth with love and care!
I am a student teacher through the University of Washington, Tacoma Teacher Certification Program. I read about this project in Science and Children and knew about it from my local Top Foods last year. Some of the teahers at Washington had done this project last year, but it was not a big deal. This year, it was a little bigger deal. Some of the teachers, myself included, used this project as a jumping-off point for a unit on environmental protection. Having a school theme received mixed reviews. It helped the kids feel that they were part of a bigger project but some students had other great messages they wanted to send. Some of those kids made posters with those messages. All in all, it was fun for us teachers and fun for the kids.
When do you anticipate the website will have most teachers' reports? I'm definitely interested in following-up with math and geography-related lessons and would like to let the other teachers in my school know about this option too. Thanks for coordinating this enormous project!
Marylin Gentz
(Student teacher - 3rd grade)
Bags decorated: 700
Comments: This year was our second year of participation in the Earth Day
Groceries Project. Our local Shop Rite donated 700 grocery bags for our
students to decorate with Earth Day messages. We had several hundred students
in grades
Pre-K through Fifth Grade take part in our efforts. The children worked
diligently and with care. They did a fantastic and creative job extending the
important message of protecting our environment to our community. The bags
looked so great, how could they not bring a smile to your face to wish all a
VERY HAPPY EARTH DAY 1999! A special thank you to all of the children,
parents, teachers, and administrators of the B.F. Gibbs School, Berkley
School, and David E. Owens Middle School for thier help and support!
Miss Theresa Emmolo
B.F. Gibbs School
New Milford, NJ
My name is Sandy Zuraw. I am a fourth grade teacher at Howe Elementary
School. I saw the article about decorating grocery bags for Earth Day and I
asked the teachers if they would like to do it with their children.
Everyone agreed and I contacted three local supermarkets: Giant Eagle, Shop
'n Save, and Foodland. All of the store managers willingly agreed to give us
grocery bags.
We decorated 436 bags and returned them to the stores so they could be
distributed on Earth Day.
The children really enjoyed decorating the bags with their ideas about
protecting the planet. Thanks for organizing this effort.
Our school is about 10 miles south of Pittsburgh, PA.
I am typing you this message from my home computer. I know Howe School has a
Web Site, but I forget its address.
Our school name:
Julia Ward Howe Elementary School
400 Broadmoor Ave.
Mt. Lebanon, PA 15228
All students at the Number Six School, Lawrence School District, participated
in the 1999 Earthday Bag project. There were 376 bags decorated and
distributed. It was both a fun and learning experience!
Sincerely,
Arlene Glassman
Library Media Specialist
Lisa Howard
East Lawrence Elementary School
Volant, Pennsylvania, USA
Bags decorated: 165
Comments:
Our Kindergarten thru Third Grade students did a wonderful job decorating the bags with messages
and artwork. Everyone had fun and was able to share their personal Earth day thoughts with Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania's, Giant Eagle customers.
The kids created a total of 165 bags!!!
Thanks for a great project!
Debbie Fogg
New Brighton Elementary School
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: Your project of decorating paper bags to be distributed on Earth Day fit in perfectly with our many Earth
Week activities here at New Brighton Elementary School. Second, Third and Fourth graders had much fun
creating Earth messages and pictures to match them. The children ejoyed learning from your web site and
especially liked the pictures. Thanks to Foodland in New Brighton for donating and distributing the bags, we helped remind the residents of New Brighton how important it is to care for our environment. LET'S MAKE EVERY DAY EARTH DAY!
Brenda Hicks
St. Alexander School
Fonthill, Ontario, Canada
Bags decorated: 520+
Comments: This was the first year that St. Alexander School has participated in the Earth Day Grocery Bag
Project. Since our local grocery Store IGA which is located in the plaza next to our school uses
recyclable plastic grocery bags we decided that we would make bookmarks with earth day messages
and artwork for the store to place in the grocery bags. This way each shopper would always
be reminded of the importance of taking care of out earth. We make 520 bookmarks. The students
enjoyed doing this activity and were very creative with their artwork. A group of students
presented the bookmarks to two staff members of the IGA on Tuesday April 20th. The store started
putting the bookmarks in the bags that day and will do so until they are all gone. This activity
shows that community that the students at St. Alexander School has an awareness of the
importance of taking care of our earth.
Gina Iurato
Albertsons
Las Vegas, Nevada
Bags decorated: 165
Comments: We had a tough time getting the local schools to participate so we located the local girl scout troop and they pitched in. Also on Earth Day we set up a table in the front of the store and talked to them about Earth Day and what it meant to them. The kids were also allowed to decorate their own personal bag that day to take their groceries home in.
Cynthia Thomas-Mullis
Ferguson Elementary
Klamath Falls, OR 97601
Bags decorated: 100
Comments:
Three third grade classes participated in decorating bags. They were displayed during Earth Week at the local Albertson's and then used on the 22nd. An excellent project. We'll do it again next year and expand if possible!
Blaine Whitford
Margaret Wooding School
Redcliff, AB, Canada
Bags decorated: 185
Comments: Thank you for the fantastic idea! We are a small school of grades four to six in a remote town in Southeastern Alberta.
A local grocery store donated the bags and every class (8) was given the opportunity to participate in the project.
The diversity and artwork of the students was outstanding. We displayed the finished products around the school in hallways, classrooms, and in the library. A small goup of students delivered the bags to the grocery store for distribution to customers.
It was very enjoyable and we look forward to participating again next year. Once our film has been developed, we will display some of our work on our website.
Thank you!
Anne Thomas
Kings Beach Elementary
Kings Beach, California
Bags decorated: 480
Comments: Our whole school took part in this project -- the variety of designs and messages was wonderful!
We're a bilingual school in a community with many Spanish-speaking residents, and so
our messages reflected this. Our children are very aware of environmental issues as we are
situated on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe and have lots of concerns about pollution and
water quality. It was a great project -- the people at our local Safeway store were enthusiastic
and we even got a front-page article in the Tahoe World on Earth Day!
Kathy Peterson
San Gabriel Elementary School
Atascadero, CA
Bags decorated: 615
Comments: Our kids at San Gabriel Elementary School in Atascadero California really enjoyed this project! Many primary classes worked with their upper grade "buddies" while other classes worked on their own. We look forward to participating next year.
Mrs. Denise Bence-Fetsko
Purchase Line North Elementary
Mahaffey, Pennsylvania
Bags decorated: 230
Comments: We had a wounderful time decorating the grocery bags at the Purchase Line North Elementary. The County Market grocery store in Punxsutawney, PA supplied the bags for our school. I would like to send a special thanks to Tim and others at County Market along with the faculty at my school for being so willing and cooperative. We had every grade K-6 decorating, and everyone did a fantastic job. This was only one of the activities to celebrate and spread awareness about Earth Day. It was the first time our school or County Market participated in the Earth Day Grocery Project, but I am sure ti will not be the last!!
This has been quite the experience- Thank you for making it possible
and for keeping track of it all.
I am doing my internship with the grade six class at Mountainview
and found your website while searching for an Earth Day activity.
I ran the idea by my cooperating teacher, Sharon, and voila!
News of the idea spread quickly through the staff and several
teachers volunteered to get involved. In the end it really became a
school project and students at every level, from kindergarten to grade
six, decorated 260 bags that were "lent" to us from the neigborhood
IGA.
The results were wonderful!!! The staff at the IGA was very supportive
and has already invited us back for next year! The IGA manager expressed
that IGA's clients were touched by the students' bilingual messages and
art work. The public awareness, in our community, concerning Earth Day
increased dramatically. Success!!
See you next year!
Tara Hodge Andreozzi
Mountainview Elementary School
Deux-Montagnes (Two-Mountains), Quebec, Canada
260 Bags decorated and distributed!!
Bowen Elementary, Bryan, Texas decorated 346 bags for Earth Day. The
bags were delivered to Apple Tree Supermarket in Bryan for use
throughout Earth Week.
Pat Supak
Gaile Sachtjen
Burke Public 26-2
Burke, SD 57523
Bags decorated: 300
Comments: We started this project just this year and we had a blast! We did this K-5 in our building. The students loved seeing their bags in the 2 stores in town, especially when someone's mom or dad got their bag to take home that day!!
Pat Onofrio
C.T. O'Connell
Bristol, CT USA
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: Every student in our school participated and made some great bags. We got the owrd out to the community through the local supermarket and people liked our stuff! The manager of the store was very cooperative and supportive of thisproject!
Diane Calabrese
Corpus Christi School
Hasbrouck Heights, NJ 07604
Bags decorated: 353
Comments: Good response from students and participating Hasbrouck Heights Shop-Rite.
Bell School, Minot North Dakota, 4th graders made 16 earthday bags.
CHRISTIAN
Diane Fagan
Ernie Pyle Elementary School
Bellflower,CA
Bags decorated: 725
Comments: The whole school, grades 1-6 participated in Earth Day Groceries Project. The Student Council distributed the bags throughout the school and collected them on Wednesday, April 21, 1999. That afternoon we delivered the bags to Rallphs Grocery Store and Alondra and Bellflower Boulevards in Bellflower, California. They gave each student a nickel for recycling. Many classes in our school did other activities to commemorate Earth Day. The first grade planted beautiful flowers in our teacher's lounge area. Other classes learned about recycling. The project was a lot of fun and the students learned a great deal
Annette Jacks
Jackson Elementary School
Norman, Oklahoma 73069
Bags decorated: 376
Comments: We loved participating in this project! We have an outdoor classroom and had an entire day devoted to Earth Day activities! Every student planted seeds and plants, listened to a guest speaker, and got to rotate through activities within their grade level (one of which was decorating a grocery sack)! Our paper sacks were donated by Buy For Less, a grocery store on Main Street in Norman, Oklahoma
Kate Sammons
George Washington Elementary
Keokuk,Iowa
Bags decorated: 463
Comments: Weekly Reader ran a "Celebrate Earth Day" supplement in our April 16,1999 issue. My fourth graders and I thought it sounded like a great idea. Although it was rather late, our local Hy Vee loaned us a bunldle of bags and seemed very enthusastic to be particating in this project. I placed the grocery bags in the library along with enough printouts of your suggested ideas for each of the teachers.
The George Washington teachers and students were equally pleased with their end result, for in only a couple of days our 285 students in grades k through 5 had decorated 465 bags. It was a great awareness for both students and community, for Hy Vee displayed some of the bags in their window and the rest, used for groceries, were gone before school let out.
We also called the newspaper and were especially pleased when a colored picture which included one child from each classroom holding a decorated bag along with a brief description of this project appeared on the front page the evening of April 22nd. The project was a huge success. Thank you for sharing your idea with us.
Kate, Amanda, Clarisse, and Gina
Acacia
Thousand Oaks CA, U.S.A.
Bags decorated: 525
Comments:
We thought it was a great idea and it was fun for all of
us. Hopefully we can participate in it again next year.
The entire school participated in a whole week of Earth
Day fun where we did such activities as recycling cans,
making posters for Earth Day, and on Friday, April 23, the
whole school had a rally where we got together and sang
and danced. We also decorated the Ralphs grocery bags
of what they thought Earth Day meant.
Thank You for giving Acacia the oppurtunity to help recycle
and help save the envirorment.This will prove to the community
how important it is for us to respect our Earth.
Dawn Roy
Hunter College Elementary School
New York, New York 1012
Bags decorated: 200
Comments: The third graders participated in this project with the support of a local grocer. They loved it and enjoyed seeing their bags distributed.
Sandy Tarantino
Martensen Elementary School
Wheatridge Colorado USA
Bags decorated: 22
Comments:
I would like a second poster to loan to my grocery store next year because I'm going to try to get the whole school involved.
Thanks for this great program and materials!
Jackie Buck
Dr. Lewis Soule Elementary School
Playcamp Rd. Salem, NH 03079
Bags decorated: 246
Comments: This is the first year that our school has attempted this project. We are a school of first
grade through fifth grade. The children were excited to think that someone would be receiving
their artwork. My thanks for letting us be a part of your Earth Day project.
Wonderful project - Thanks so much!! Our school (grades 4,5,&6) participated this year and even included a class of second graders woh walked over from their school to help. We took pictures with the digital camera, but I have no idea how to send them - the principal may help me with that later!!
So - 450 kids from Scappoose, OR took decorated sacks to our local Fred Meyer store to distribute today. There was a story about it in our local newspaper, too. Thanks for helping us to make our community more aware of Earth Day!
Anne Duschka
5th grade teacher
Jennifer Baginski
Detroit Country Day School
Beverly Hills, Michigan, USA
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: The students really enjoyed this project, especially since it tied right in to our curriculum!
The sixth grade focused on recycling and endangered species messages while the seventh grade explored
the wetlands. This is especially important since they are disappearing at an alarming rate in our area! The eigth
grade also explored solid waste management.
Thanks for your dedication and hard work to this project!
Ruth Mooney
Greenview Knolls Elementary
Great Mills, MD, USA
Bags decorated: 210
Comments:
Our 2nd, 4th, & 5th grade students enjoyed decorating the bags for Earth Day. Our local grocer, who gave us the bags, displayed them throughout his store. We were disappointed that he could not reissue them to the public due to health regulations.
Mrs. Sara Feyen
St. Mary's School
East Dubuque, Illinois 61025
Bags decorated: 165
Comments:
The fifth and sixth grade students here at St. Mary's School in East Dubuque, Illinois
really enjoyed The Earth Day Groceries Project. We decorated 165 bags with a class of only 18
students. They were real excited to go to Eagles Grocery Store to see if they would get a bag from
our school.
Roberta Friedland
North Springs Elementary
Columbia, South Carolina
Bags decorated: 500
Comments:
Students in grades 1-5 at North Springs Elementary School had fun decorating their
Earth Day grocery bags donated by Publix. We were told that the customers at the
grocery store thought the bags were "much too nice to use". We encouraged them to
Reuse the bags for many alternative uses in the home. Everyone seemed to feel very
proud as a participant in this worthwhile community project.
I am very proud to report the participation of our students, staff and
local grocery store in this years Earth Day Groceries Project. The
project was welcomed with smiles and the bags turned out great! We here,
at Nespelem School District, are very fortunate in the enthusiasm that
we are supported with. Thank you for the opportunity to allow our
children to raise awareness within our small community, their messages
were truely genuine.
Leeann Waters,
Family Support Coordinator
Participants:
Nespelem's smiling students
Nespelem's cheerful staff
Trading Post (grocery store)
Rosann Libretto
Susan E. Wiley Elementary School - second graders
Copiague, New York
Bags decorated: 153
Comments:
Edwards Food Store in Amityville, New York was very happy to supply the grocery bags and distribute them on Earth Day. The children enjoyed the project and are looking forward to doing it again next year. It was a very effective way of spreading the message about reusing and recycling.
Wanda J. Comein
City of Country Club Hills Environmental Commission
Country Club Hills, Illinois
Bags decorated: 2800
(five schools)
Comments: In conjunction with our annual Earth Arbor Day Celebration, every elementary school child in the City of Country Club Hills participated. We were given 2800 bags from our local Eagle Country Market. The best bags, 100, are hanging in our City Hall during the month of April & May.
Jena Wessel
Evansville Day School
Evansville IN 47715
Bags decorated: 300
Comments: The children really enjoyed this project. Thanks for sharing this idea.
Greta Loeber
Simpson Elementary
Norcross, GA 30092
Bags decorated: 1,161
Comments: The fourth grade students at Simpson distributed grocery bags from three stores that support our
school, Publix, Winn Dixie, and Kroger to every classroom teacher. The students really helped
spread the word about the 3 R's for protecting our fragile Earth. We returned 1,161
decorated grocery bags to the three stores in our community. The stores were very appreciative
to have these to share with their customers.
Mrs. Karen Lawrence
Potomac Elementary School
Potomac, Maryland USA
Bags decorated: 150
Comments: This was the first time we did this, and the students
really enjoyed it.
We did have the grocery store report their corporate
headquarters did not want them used, becuase they thought
markers would run....anyway they were distributed and we
look forward to doing again next year.
Just wanted to let you know that Redland Elementary School located in
Homestead, Florida implemented the Grocery Bag Project. Most of the
entire school participated and had a great time doing so. We had
approximately 740 brown paper grocery bags which were decorated with
ways to help the Earth. Publix in Homestead was gracious enough to
donate the bags and then reuse them on Earth Day. Thanks for the idea.
Gina Geiger - Grade 4
Judy Graham
St. Ann School
Nashville, Tn. USA
Bags decorated: 200
Comments: We collaborated with the Charlotte Avenue Kroger grocery store. The children really enjoyed this project!
Mildred Barrineau
Sumter, SC. USA
Bags decorated: 500
Comments:
This is the 2nd year that our school has participated. We love it and so does the grocery store.
Cathy Gregory
Howe Elementary
Howe, Ok. 74937 U.S.A.
Bags decorated: 250
Comments: We didn't do very many bags, we are a small rural school in Southeast Okla.
The kids had a great time decorating the bags. We used our own ideas and some of yours.
We decorated both sides. They had very good ideas, very cleaver. After school I visited the two stores we had gotten the bags from, the publics reaction to the idea was very favorable.
Most of the customers didn't know that it was Earth Day and several didn't have a clue what it meant. So we did some community awareness. Count us in for next year, we will start alittle bit earlier.
At Lake Stickney Elementary in the Mukilteo School District, students decorated
about 400 bags for distribution at our local Albertson's at 4th Ave W and 128th
St. SW.
I'll let you know when I post an updated report on my web page.
Thanks again for your work on this project.
Thom Garrard
Bags decorated- 206
All students at Orange Elementary School (1-6), as part of our Earth Day
projects decorated 206 grocery bags. Cox's New Market in Connersville,
Indiana loaned Orange Elementary 150 paper grocery bags for the activity
and some of the grocers used bags were also used as an extension of the
project. Students were very creative and enjoyed participating in this
event. Orange Elementary School is part of the Fayette County School
Corporation and is located about 12 miles from Connersville, Indiana in the
town of Orange. Connersville is in the east central part of Indiana.
Kathy Evans
Orange Elementary School
8318 West Key Street
Glenwood, Indiana 46133
Stephanie Hanstrom
Norwood Elementary School
Burleson, TX (Johnson County)
Bags decorated: 147
Comments: The 3rd grade students had a great time decorated the bags. Albertson's was kind enough to donate the bags. We have sent pitures via e-mail. Thanks for the idea!
Mrs. Laurie Fox
Stillman School
Tenafly, NJ 07670
Bags decorated: 20
Comments: We think we would like to get the message out to the world that we should recycle, reuse and reduce the amount of garbage. SAVE THE WORLD !!!
Ms.Meisterheim
Greyhound Intermediate
Eaton Rapids MI USA
Bags decorated: 229
Comments: We are recycling throughout our school every Wednesday. We thought it would be a good idea to participate in the Earth Day Grocery bag project. Our school contain 5th and 6th graders and we have decorated 229 bags this year. We hope to continue this each year.
Stephanie M.Boyles
St. Ann
Prairie Village Kansas
Bags decorated: 329
Comments:
This is the first year we have been a part of the Earth day project. Our School decorated the bags in Art class. Students from grades 1st through eighth decorated the bags. Our grocery bag sponsor was Wild Oats Market in Mission, Kansas. The students enjoyed the project very much! We hope to do it again!
Amy Zakorchemny
Aston Presbyterian Church Daycare
Aston, PA
Bags decorated: 290
Comments: Hi thank you for this wonderful idea. Aston Pres daycare, St. James Pre-school and Aston elementary together
decorated 290 bags for this project! The children had a great deal of fun doing this project. We hope to participate
again next year and we hope to help spread the word for more schools to participate!! I am very happy
to see young children being taught to help save the Earth, she needs all the help she can get!!
Good Luck and Thank you again for such a terrific idea to help save the Earth.
Andy Semancik
Canterbury Elementary
Canterbury, Ct 06331
Bags decorated: 138
Comments: We read about the grocery bags project in Weekly Reader. It's a terrific idea and project! The students really enjoyed decorating the bags and truly got the feeling of helping and making a difference for Earth day, 1999!
Mrs.Susan Stiefel
Forest Road Elementary School
Valley Stream, NY 11582
Bags decorated: 384
Comments: This 4th grade class sponsored the Earth Day grocery bag project for the Forest Road School. All the children in the school decorated their Waldbaums bags during their art class with their art teacher, Mrs. Susan Baron. These bags were given to customers on Earth Day, 1999. Mrs.Stiefel's class hopes that everyone in the Millbrook community will preserve our environment.
Mrs. W. Henke
Santee Community School
Bags decorated: 100
Comments: K-6 graders decorated bags from our local store, Lewis and Clark, here in Santee. Then the bags were brought back to the store to be used by the customers. We also picked up the streets, planted flowers and trees. We are making a medicine wheel butterfly garden and decorating trashcans. Each class adopted a street and will receive a traveling trophy for best street every two weeks. We also raised butterflies K-6 grades and released them into nature. Each class did various projects also for earth day. At the conclusion K-6 presented an earth day play with music.
Patricia De Moe
Mound View Elementary, Grade 4
Elk Mound, WI, USA
Bags decorated: 21
Comments: We care. We pledge to take care of the earth!
Reduce! Reuse! Recycle!
Sandra Ward
Lombardi School
Green Bay, WI USA
Bags decorated: 1200
Linda Kinney
Oakview Elementary School
Centralia, WA, USA
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: We will send you photos of seven of our bags and will also attach photos to our school website. Thanks.
Victoria Angelotti
Diplomat Elementary School
Cape Coral, Florida, USA
Bags decorated: 1000+
Comments: Students in our Pre-K through 5th grade classes decorated
bags donated by Albertson's. With over 1000 bags in hand,
several students, staff and family members arrived at
Albertson's on April 22, to help bag groceries and spread
the Earth Day Message. A fabulous time was had by all!
Kristina Iven
George Watts Elementary School
Durham NC
Bags decorated: 194
Comments: This was the first year that Durham schools have participated in the program. I was pleased to have three local elementary schools, George Watts, C.C. Spaulding and Eno Valley participate.
Bags were distributed to three different Kroger stores in the Durham area. The students enjoyed decorating the bags and I hope that these schools and others will participate in future years.
Angie Smith
West Point Elementary
West Point, Georgia USA
Bags decorated: 475
Comments: Pre-K through 5th grade students decorated bags which were donated by Givorn's Grocery Store in our
community. On Earth day, these bags were distributed to all customers purchasing groceries. Our
students were extremely excited and many of them visited the grocery store on this day!!
Kathryn O'Grady
P.S. # 15
Clifton, NJ USA
Bags decorated: 450
Thank you very much for a brilliant idea! As a student teacher, this was a great experience for me. The teachers and administration in my school were very enthusiatic about it, as were the children. It was also featured on the front cover of the local newspaper. It worked very nicely as closure for the unit I just finished, "It's Up To Us", which is all about taking an active part to save the earth. It was really a meaningful and relevant experience for the students at School 15!
Thanks again- Kathryn
P.s.- I do have pictures I would like to send in, but our scanner is currently out of order. So I will send them in as soon as possible. Also, Pathmark of Clifton, on Paulison Ave. was the supermarket that helped us in the endeavor.
Bay Laurel Elementary
Calabasas, Ca. USA
Bags decorated: 120
Comments: What a great project for the children to be involved in both for Earth Day and the community! Thank you for taking an interest in getting the children involved!!
Fran Haislip
Pleasant Union Elementary
Raleigh, North Carolina,USA
Bags decorated: 400
Comments:
We had approximately 400 students in grades kindergarten through fifth grade participating in this project.
Some of Ms. Haislip's first grade students will have their pictures and bags posted on our website. Click
on our school calendar and then follow the Earth Day link. Enjoy!
Tammy Staser
Scottsburg Elementary
Scottsburg, IN 47170
Bags decorated: 457
Comments:
I thought this was a great project. Our local grocery store does still use paper instead of plastic. Most of all, I thought it gave each child at least of few minutes, when they were decorating their bag, to think about Earth Day and what it means. Thanks for including us.
Sue McQueen
Holton Elementary
Holton MI USA
Bags decorated: 600
Comments:
Our students did a wonderful job on their bags.
Sherry Edbauer
Delevan Elementary School at Pioneer Central
Delevan, NY
Bags decorated: 594
Comments: Many teachers thought it was a wonderful idea. The students seemed to enjoy it. Many wanted to go to the store to get their
bags back! We , as a building enjoyed doig it too.
Bags decorated: 1020
Comments: This is our first year to participate in the Earth Day Groceries Project.
We had all of our schools in the Corbin district in the state of
Kentucky to participate. They were: Corbin High School, Corbin
Middle School, South Elem., and Central Primary. We decorated a
total of 1,020 bags for our first year in the project. This has been
a wonderfully rewarding project. Thank you for the idea!! Please, keep
me informed for upcoming events. I along with other teachers
are already planning for next years Groceries Project. HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!!!
Rhonda Sizemore, Special Ed. Teacher
Corbin High School
Corbin, Kentucky
Hi and Happy Earth Day
I wanted to let you know that the second graders at Country Oaks Elem.,
in Commerce Twp, MI decorated 300 bags for Earth Day. We had a great
time and learned a lot about recycling and keeping the Earth healthy in
the process. Our local IGA used the bags today to pack groceries in.
Thank you for the great idea!!
Debbie Wasmuth
Second grade teacher
We are on a military base and paper sacks are not always available.
We used your idea and graphics to recycle milkcartons into
birdhouses. We sold them for $1.50 and used the money to purchase
rainforest acreage. Thank you for the great project idea.
DC Community
(Ms. Baker's 3rd grade class)
Ikego Elementary-Zushi Japan
Psc 474 Box 300
FPO AP 96351-0003
Just letting you know my school participated in the earh day grocery bag
project on the third grade level-- we have 11 third grades, decorating 250
bags, the name of our school is New Lane Elem. Sch. in Selden, NY. The
children really enjoyed this program and this idea was excellent!!! Thank
you.
Joan Sweeney
Patti Hosford
Irwin Avenue Open Elementary
Charlotte, NC 28202
Bags decorated: 451
Comments:
When I first suggested designing Earth Day Bags I got very little excitement from our teachers and students. But decorating was
contagious!! We had so much fun and the kids were very creative. We'd like to thank Winn-Dixie on Sunset and Statesville Road
for donating bags. These were the best bags because they had no advertising on them!! We also would like to thank Food
Lion at Cheshire Place for donating bags. We stapled our pictures onto their bags. About 85% of our students participated
and we hope to donate 1 bag per student next year or 575 bags.
This is a great activity. Thanks.
Patti Hosford,
Irwin Avenue Open Elementary School,
Charlotte, North Carolina
Ms.Cara Bayersdorfer's Fourth Grade Class
Barrett Elementary School-Arlington, VA
Arlington, VA-USA
Bags decorated: 37
Comments:
The fourth graders had a wonderful time with this project. I wish we had more time and had involved more people. But as a first year teacher this was an activity that I just started. Hopefully it will grow next year. However, my class and I still feel we made an important contribution. Next year as fifth graders they hope to continue it with their new teachers. It was a great success, and a big hit with the students.
Jan Francis
Ivy Hill Elementary
Arlington Heights, Il
Bags decorated: 350
Comments: This was a great simple project for the whole school to do. The staff thought it was a wonderful idea and the kids had a blast decorating the bags. Jewel Foods was more than happy to donate as many bags as needed. I also shared this with my husband's school and they participated too! Thanks! Next year we will be in Mexico and hope to continue it down there.
Marybeth Raynes
Matteson Elementary School
Matteson, IL
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: This was the first year our school participated in the Earth Day Groceries Project. Our students decorated 500 bags from Dominick's Grocery Store in Matteson. Some teachers and staff went to the store before school to shop so we could bring the bags back to school and show the children that their bags were really being used. The kids loved it, the teachers loved it, and the community loved it.
We topped off all our hard work with an Earth Day assembly that was excellent. Each class performed a short song, poem, or choral reading pertaining to Earth Day. We had a great time! Thanks for the great idea!
Andrew Conrad
Liberty Center
Liberty Center, Ohio
Bags decorated: 115
Trish Padley
Conrad Elementary School
Newark, OH
Bags decorated: 350
Comments:
Our school of just over 300 students decorated grocery bags for the local
store, Jamboree. We learned about the earth and how we need to take care
of it. We did a litter walk throughout the neighborhood of the school
and collected 40 bags of litter.
Julie Ella Zang
Juniata Valley Elementary School
Alexandria, PA USA
Bags decorated: 72
Comments:
This is the first year for our school to participate in the Grocery Bags Project. I am a senior at Penn State University majoring in Elementary Ed. Yesterday was my last day for pre-student teaching with my third grade class at Juniata Valley Elementary, which is located in a very small, rural area. I receive the NSTA magazine. I read about the Grocery Bags Project there, and suggested it to my mentor teacher. She thought it was a great idea! I went to BiLo in our community and asked if they would allow our class to participate in this project by decorating some of their bags. They said sure! They gave us enough bags for all three of our third grades! We spent several days working on our bags, and we displayed them in the halls at our school to get the message out to other students and our principal about saving the Earth! I made an announcement to the whole school explaining what we did and telling them that hopefully next year BiLo will give us enough bags for the !
entire school to participate! This is a great project! The kids were so excited, and the teachers are excited for next year! Thanks to you and the NSTA magazine, I was able to introduce this to my school! This was a great way to get the kids involved in their community and thinking about Earth Day! Thanks again for starting such a great project!
Mrs. Tharp's 4th grade class
Audubon Traditional Elementary School
Louisville, KY USA
Bags decorated: 22
Comments: We will be taking our decorated bags to the grocery store
to use when our parents go shopping. When people see these
bags they will know we are trying hard to save the Earth.
It was a cool and interesting project!
Happy Earth Day, 1999!
Return to Reports from 1999
Return to Earth Day Groceries