Earth Day Groceries, 1999 Reports
This is Part 11, with reports from schools 1,001 -1,100.
Updated June 20,1999.
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.
Here are some pictures of Earth day grocery bags that were decorated by grade three and four students from École Bonaventure in Selkirk, Manitoba. First, students surfed the internet sites and had the chance to see projects from all over the world. They were motivated by what they saw. Then they began composing friendly environment messages and drew pictures to accompany their messages. Gaynor's Foods was kind enough to supply the bags, and they are looking forward to participating again next year. Next year, we would like to take the project school wide and have every student participate. Thanks for a great idea and I hope that you are able to put these pictures on the site. The students are waiting anxiously to see their work.
Yours truly,
Lynn Joyal
Through Earth Day Acadiana, six area elementary schools participated in
Earth Day Groceries Project decorating 1950 grocery bags.
Participating schools include:
Prairie Elementary School
Lafayette, LA
450 bags
Milton Elementary School
Milton, LA
300 bags
Plantation Elementary School
Lafayette, LA
350 bags
Westminster Christian Academy
Lafayette, LA
175 bags
Woodvale Elementary School
Lafayette, LA
325 bags
Dodson Elementary
New Iberia, LA
350 bags
Next year promises to bring more grocer and school participation.
Thanks for the idea,
Stacey L. Scarce
Coordinator,
Earth Day Acadiana
Mary Agoritsas
Raymond C. Richer Elementary School
Marlborough, Massachusetts
First Grade Teacher
625 bags decorated
While looking through my April "Copy Cat Press" magazine, I found the
address of your wonderful web site and some great "hands on" activities
for designing the paper bags. It was a perfect project that could be
done ahead of time, as we were on vacation the week of Earth Day. The
rest of the teaching staff was very enthusiastic and the idea caught on
right away. Victory Supermarket in Marlborough gave us the bags to
decorate and distributed them on Earth Day. Manager Jim Guercio said he
was very pleased with the great artwork from our first, second, and
third graders. Many children made a special trip to the supermarket to
get a decorated bag that they could recycle. We had a great time with
this project. Check out our pictures of some of the artists from Karen
Murphy's third grade.
Lina Jullier de Eggstein
Advice Prep School
Santa Fe, Argentina
Bags decorated: 600
Comments:
This was our first experience, and our students were really happy to do it. The best part of all, was when they went to the supermarkets and they had to hand in bags to the customers. You know that here in Argentina we don't have paper bags, so people very surprised and pleased when the students, after telling them what the project was about, gave them the bags.
I do hope that you include some of our pictures on your page, and if so you tell us so that students can see themselves "on the net"
Cheryl Watt
Friendship Valley Elementary School
Westminster, Maryland, USA
Bags decorated: 504
Comments: This was the first year Friendship Valley Elementary participated in the Earth Day Groceries project. The activity was coordinated by first grade teacher Cheryl Watt. K-4th grade students used their Intelligent Behaviors of problem solving, flexibility in thinking, and creativity to decorate 504 grocery bags with an environmental message about saving the Earth. Grocery bags were donated by our local Metro Food Market. FVE is thankful for the opportunity to work with and involve the local community with its educational projects. A highlight for the students was seeing their classmates on the front page of the local newspaper, "Carroll County Times". A reporter and photographer visited Ms. Watt's class as they worked on their bags. FVE looks forward to participating in future Earth Day Groceries projects.
Amarilys Lopez
Piccolo Elementary
1040 N. Keeler Chicago, IL. 60651 U.S.A.
Bags decorated: 250
Comments: It was a great experience! The fifth grade students had a wonderful time explaining and teaching the younger students in our school about the importance of recycling and why we observe Earth Day.
Denise French
Twin Valley South Elementary
West Alexandria, Ohio/USA
Bags decorated: 414
Comments: This is the first year that the elementary has participated in decorating bags for Earth Day. The kindergarten, first, third, fourth and fifth grades participated. The guidance counselor also worked with the students and discussed responsibility and recycling. The fifth grade students wrote questions on their bags and had the middle school students research the answers. We got our bags from two local grocery stores, Marsh IGA and Krogers. We hope to continue our participation next year.
Sandy Kennedy
St. Aloysius School
Springfield, IL
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: Sponsored by our 4th grade Environmental Club, our Earth Day grocery bag project was held for the first time this year (April 1999). Our local Schnuck's grocery store gladly gave us the bags to decorate and even displayed some throughout the store! The kids loved this activity, and apparently so did the customers at Schnuck's from comments we received.
The students of the Inverness Education Centre in Inverness, Nova Scotia. Canada decorated 369 paper grocery bags this year. This surpassed their previous total of 316 bags last year. The Shean Co-op in Inverness gave the students the bags and they were well recieved by customers on April 22nd, Earth day 1999.
We look forward to participating in this wonderful project again next year and as project coordinator of the Earth Day Grocery Project at this school, I wish to thank and applaud the staff and students on their enthusiam and great effort,the Shean Co-op staff for their extra effort and support. Also the local newspaper The Inverness Oran for the wonderful coverage once again this year on this very worthwhile project. Way to go!
Bonny H.J. Mac Isaac
Earth Day Project Coordinator
Inverness Education Centre
Inverness, Nova Scotia. Canada
Kristi Saunig
R.R. Moton Elementary School
Miami, Florida
Bags decorated: 700
Comments: R.R. Moton Elementary School in Miami, Florida decorated over 700 grocery bags donated by the Sone Container Corporation in Jacksonville, Florida. Pre-Kindergarten through 5th grade students were awarded Earth Day Stickers for participating. Each class had a winning bag/and or slogan and were awarded a pencil, eraser, and book mark from the school book fair. The local Publix Grocery Store distributed the decorated bags on Earth Day . The Miami Herald Newspaper published an article congratulating the Earth Day Grocery Bag winners and the success of the project.
R. R. Moton Elementary pledges to "Use the Can, not the Land" in 2000!
Thank you for Mr. Bob Hinton's assistance and "The Recyclers".
Kristi Saunig
Lowell Elementary (in Tacoma), participated for the first time this year.
Students decorated 368 bags and enjoyed working with Albertsons, our
community partner.
Thanks,
Jack Leiman
Margarita M. Garcia
George B. Swift Specialty School
5900 N. Winthrop Ave. Chicago, IL 60660 USA
Bags decorated: 850
Comments: I came across your website while reading my Creative Classroom - March/April 1999 subscription.
On the following school day I ran to the school principal with this great idea. I told Dr. DeJulio that I wanted to be the school's Earth Day coordinator; I shared with him my project idea and he gave me the green flag.
During the first two weeks of April, I circulated a sign up sheet that all of our teachers from PreK - Sixth grade participated. I had a group of my sixth grade students who volunteered to be the Earth Day teachers. These students prepared a mini-lesson by gathering data on the 3R's -- Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The student/teacher went to all the classrooms with an assistant and taught the mini-lesson using a KWL chart on the chalkboard. The student/teacher demonstrated how to decorate the paper grocery bags and assigned homework to the students. Each student had to go home that evening and make a list of the products they saw in their pantries with the recyclable sign - on plastic, paper and/or aluminum products. Since our school community is a multicultural one we had the Earth Day, 1999 heading translated into Spanish, Chinesem, Vietnamese and Bosnian, besides English. We want to thank John Boudart, the manager at Dominick's Finer Foods at 6009 N. Broadway Ave., in !
Chicago, Il. He was very cooperative and willing to participate in this global awareness project. He had 850 grocery bags delivered to our school for each student to decorate. This was not only a fun project, but a very educational and very successful project that everyone at George B. Swift Specialty School in Chicago, Illinois enjoyed participating in and looks forward to next year's Earth Day Groceries Project.
Sincerely,
Margarita M. Garcia
Earth Day School Coordinator &
Spanish-Bilingual Sixth Grade Teacher
Elizabeth Davis Harris
Cahaba Girl Scout Council, Mtn. Brook Area, Brownie Troop 711
Birmingham, AL
Bags decorated: 75
Students from several elementary schools in the Washington, DC
metropolitan area, as well as scores of young area tourists, helped
decorate 311 handled paper grocery bags with Earth Day messages at the
American Forest & Paper Association's booth at the Ag-Earth Day
celebration (an educational collaboration by more than 50 agricultural
organizations) on the national mall on April 21. Thanks to this fun,
educational project, students, teachers and parents learned more about
paper reuse and recycling and sustainable forestry. The bags, donated
by Willamette Industries, were distributed to customers at several
family-run grocery stores on Capitol Hill. A special visitor to the
event, Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman, enjoyed learning about the
project — and even took a decorated bag back to his office!
Colleen Shine
Debbie Finnell
Albertson's / Keizer Elementary
Location: Keizer, OR
Bags decorated: 300
Comments: The Earthday Grocery program was not only fun for the third graders at Keizer Elementary, but it was great for those of us at Albertson's that were involved. It has started a great store/school relationship that we plan to carry into the next school year. We went one step farther and took Douglas Fir seedlings to the school on Arbor Day as a show of thanks for all their hard work. The kids were thrilled beyond belief. Thank you for this great program and we look forward to doing it again next year.
Thank You,
Debbie Finnell- deli manager
Joyce Cotter- GM manager
Allie Johnson- butcher block suprv.
Keizer Oregon Albertsons #562
Danielle Powell, Earth Day Groceries Coordinator
SPARC Academy Charter School
Raleigh, NC, USA
# Bags Decorated -- 100
Students of SPARC Academy had a great time with the Earth Day Groceries
Project as a part of a Service Learning Activity. Elementary and middle
school students participated in the project. A local Kroger Store
supplied us with the bags to decorate. The students really got into
their work, and were very creative. We took two group field trips to
return the bags to the store. The students entertained the managers,
employees and customers with rhythmic hand claps and songs. To conclude
the field trips, the groups enjoyed lunch at a nearby Golden Corral
Restaurant. The students thoroughly enjoyed the project and we look
forward to doing it again next year.
Vicki Rathbun
Lincoln Elem.
Bryan City Schools
Bryan, Ohio
Bags decorated: 215
Diana Kenney
Franklin Elementary School
Alameda, CA
Bags decorated: 260
Comments: Franklin Elementary School held it's second annual Earth Day
Carnival on April 22, 1999. We had over 25 activites for the
students to participate in. Kindergarten students had K guides
to take them around to the different "events".K guides are
4th and 5th grade students. The Monday before Earth Day
Lucky's grocery store donated 260 paper bags to be decorated.
Each student decorated a bag and we returned them to the
store in time for Earth Day.
Keep Up the Good Work!!!
Thanks for the Good Ideas!!
Diana Kenney
Angie Kessler
CB Smith
Pekin, IL
Bags decorated: 80
Comments: Students enjoyed decorating grocery bags with Earth Day decorations. We took our bags to a local grocery store where many residents of our area got to take home a bag decorated by a CB Smith student.
Becky Girling
Mound Park School
Warren, Michigan
Bags decorated: 400
Comments:
Two local grocery stores, Farmer Jack and Sy's, donated bags for our school to decorate. It was a huge success! The students enjoyed decorating the bags and helping to promote Earth Day in our community.
Kay Halloran
Bresnahan, Brown, Kelley, Nock Middle Schools
Newburyport, MA. USA
Bags decorated: 1200
Comments: Students on our "Green Teams" at the Bresnahan, Brown, and Kelley Elementary Schools painted and decorated bags that were distributed at Market Basket and Shaw's Supermarket. The Nock Middle School"Green Team" decorated also and brought the bags to the stores. The bags were beautiful and many supermarket customers commented on how great they were. Next year we hope to increase our numbers to go over the 1200 count.
Holly Barkley
Veterans Park Elementary (K - 5)
Lexington, KY USA
Bags decorated: 675
Comments: This year we participated again in this wonderful Earth Day project! The grocery employees were excited to see the colorful bags arriving! This year only the 4th and 5th grades participated ... the other grades were working on finishing up another art project when Earth Day arrived! But, as they finished their project, they were allowed to decorate a bag! Overall, we had a great time and thouroughly enjoyed ourselves! Thanks for your ideas and coordination!
Sorry this is so late. Some of the teachers in my school wished to
participate in the activity, so we had 204 students decorate bags.
Hopefully next year more teachers will want to be involved.
Again, I'm sorry I am so late in getting back to you. Hope you can still
use the information. It was a fun activity!!!
Catherine DeRosa
Grade 5 Teacher
Broad Street School
390 Broad Street
Nashua, NH 03063
Grace Moone
Marbletown Elementary School
Stone Ridge, New York
Bags decorated: 350
Comments: WE had a great time decorating the bags. Five third grade classes participated as part of their Community Service project. The students are part of a Learn and Serve America Grant. We are studying our local watershed. We used the theme WOW - Watch Our Watershed. The students drew symbols and pictures to help remind people about what is in the watershed and why it is important!
What fun to see the bags in the store again, and wathc them go "home" and even get reused because the were decorated so well.
Yakima County Public Works, Solid Waste Division organized the Yakima Valley
Earth Day Grocery Bag Project. Over 300 classrooms participated from public
and private elementary, middle and high schools representing Yakima, East
Valley, West Valley, Selah, Naches, Highland, Mt. Adams, Wapato, Toppenish,
Zillah, Sunnyside, Mabton and Grandview School Districts. Approximately
11,000 grocery bags were decorated sharing the spirit of Earth Day and
reminding Yakima Valley residents to recycle. These bags were distributed
by 14 local grocery stores including Wray's Thriftway, Top Food and Drug,
Fred Meyer, Food Pavalion and Zillah Food Center as well as Red Apple
Markets and Save-On-Food Stores throughout the valley. With radio and print
media advertising the day, the students sent a strong message that "Earth
Day is Every Day in Yakima Valley".
Becky Wandell
Solid Waste Program Representative
(Coordinator, Earth Day Grocery Bag Project)
Yakima County Solid Waste
105 East "A" St.
Yakima, WA. 98901
(509) 574-2450
Hi,
I just wanted to report that 562 students in my school decorated
bags this year as part of our Earth Day Celebration Week. Since we had
a school vacation the week that April 22 landed on we used the following
week to concentrate on care of the environment. Each student decorated
one bag and then I returned them to the Super Stop and Shop in Newtown,
CT where I borrowed them from. It was very exciting to hear the
compliments about the students work.
Sincerely,
Pam Fagan,
Math/Science Specialist at Middle Gate School,
Newtown, CT
Lee Qarib
Bags decorated: 590
Comments: What a wonderful project this has been! From start to finish the children of Katharine Drexel
have put their hearts into organizing and decorating 590 grocery bags from our local Albertson's
in Broussard, Louisiana. Our class of fourth graders (20 in all) were in charge of the project from
the beginning. Each child chose 2 or 3 classes for which he/she was responsible. They made
sample bags, presented a short description of the project, counted out the correct number of
bags per class, and by all accounts did a wonderful job of promoting recycling and
paper conservation. They also suggested a poster contest on the theme of Earth Day with the
goal of informing the local community. The posters were taken to Albertson's and displayed.
As the oldest children and the leaders in our K-4 school, they did a wonderful job of teaching the
younger students an important lesson about caring for our environment.
Thanks to Jordan,
William, Charla, Britney, Brett, Josh, Jessika, Joshua, Elizabeth, Caleb, Blair, Julien, Tylan,
Brandon, Kristin, Leah, Christy, Timothy, Melanie, and Brooke. Your teacher is very proud of
each of you!
Mary Castle
Jefferson Park Elementary
Tucson, AZ USA
Bags decorated: 180
Comments: A group of about 30 students worked after school on the project.
We obtained our bags from an Albertson's store. The employees
there were most cooperative. We plan to do even more next year!
Jennifer Roizen
University of Chicago Laboratory Schools' Terra Club
Chicago, Illinois/ USA
Bags decorated: 347
Patty Snyder
Purdy Elementary School
Fort Atkinson, WI, USA
Bags decorated: 575
Comments: The students and staff at Purdy Elementary School wholeheartedly enjoyed participating in the Grocery Bag Project in honor of Earth Day. We look forward to continued participation in the future.
Ruth Lynn Nixon
Norwood Elementary School
Stonewood Wv 26301
Bags decorated: 285
Helen Marish
Los Angeles Children's Museum
Los Angeles CA, USA
Bags decorated: 2,400
Comments: Everyday is Earth Day! Decorate grocery bags throughout the whole year.
Jennifer Babcock
Lincoln School
Chanute, Kansas, USA
Bags decorated: 285
Comments: All the students at Lincoln School decorated 285 grocery bags. These were donated by Ron's
IGA in Chanute, Kansas. We chose one student from each class, along with our principal, to
deliver the bags to the store. The local neswpaper was contacted and a photographer met the
students at the store. A front page article and photograph appeared in the Chanute Tribune on
Earth Day. It was great!
Everyone really enjoyed the project and we ran out of bags to decorate because of the enthusiam
of the children!
Jackie Walter
Meadows Elementary School
Olympia, WA 98501 USA
Bags decorated: 178
Comments: This was a great project!! My 4th grade students really got into it, and enjoyed encouraging younger classes to join our efforts. I found a helpful article in the Mar/Apr issue of Copycat Magazine with good ideas for getting younger kids started. My 4th graders focused on the plight of our local endangered salmon, and promoted "salmon friendly" practices. The project was empowering for the kids and inspired in them a sense of hope for the future. They really believe that folks will get the message on the bags and respond positively. The clerks at Mega Foods also really enjoyed the project, they took time to notice and appreciate the artwork and message on each bag.
Sara Lowry
Joyce Kilmer School
Mahwah, NJ 07430
Bags decorated: 685
Comments: Our students at Joyce Kilmer School, grades 3 through 5, participated in the Earth Day Groceries Project for the second year! One of our 5th grade teachers, Mrs. Bach, found your project on the Internet last year. We now view this project as our annual community service to spread the news about Earth Day. Our local A & P provided the grocery bags. Two letters have already been sent to our school to thank us for the terrific artwork and for reminding them to take care of the earth. We feel proud to take part in this important event.
Heather Billings
Meetinghouse School
Westminster, MA
Bags decorated: 199
Comments: On short notice this year, the students decorated 199 grocery bags for distribution at the Star Market. At our Earth Day Celebration we displayed the bags and entered each participant's name into drawings (by grade) for gift certificates to Wachusett Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary. We have such fun doing this project each year. Thank you.
Merry Pickenpaugh
Madison Station Elem.
Madison, MS
Bags decorated: 846
Comments:
The project was great. Everyone had a good time with the project. Jitney Jungle recieved our bags and hung them up on their walls. Everyone enjoyed our earthday bags.
General Greene Elementary located in Greensboro, NC
participated in your Bag Beautification project by decorating 229
recycleable grocery bags provided by our local Winn-Dixie store. The
students really got into this project and the store manager was most
receptive. He also stated that the customers enjoyed getting the
decorated bags. I apologize that it has taken some time to send this.
Due to "technical difficulties" wherein my e-mail access was "out there"
somewhere in cyberspace, this is the earliest I have been able to send
your mail! Please add our information to your database, so that we may
know were are included in these statistics. General Greene is a magnet
school and its complete name is: General Greene School of Science and
Technology. Thanks for pulling all of this together. It is fascinating
for the children to see and read the efforts of children in Greece, etc.
A great and manageable project!
Helen Hoffman
This was the first year that our school participated in this
project. The teachers and students enjoyed the project very much. We
decorated 800 bags. Students from Pre-K through 5th participated in
decorating the bags. Even though our school was out for vacation the
day the bags were handed out, the children wanted to do the project.
Our local store Paton's Super Duper was very supportive and gave us all
the bags we needed. Our local paper ran articles about the project and
took pictures the day the bags were handed out. This was a wonderful
project that helped reinforce lessons done in the classroom. We hope to
continue to do this next year. Thank you!
Marcia Cottrell
Curriculum Services Teacher (K-12)
Sodus Central School
Sodus, New York
Marcia L. Windley
West Seaford Elem
Seaford, DE 19973
Bags decorated: 150
Comments: All third grade students at West Seaford Elementary decorated bags donated by Food City here in Seaford, DE. Many parents and teachers received their groceries in our schools' bags during Earth Week. We hope people got the message to reuse and recycle their bags. We hope to participate next year. Thanks!
Bridget Rhode
St. Mary's Catholic School
Portage, WI, United States
Bags decorated: Over 400
Comments: St. Mary's is a school of 178 students, K-8. We made Earth Bags our
all school Earth Day Project.
Mary Hemminger
St. Thomas More
Green Bay, WI 54301
Bags decorated: 500
Comments:
Students We had a great time decorating and walking to a neighborhood Sentry food store with our bags. Two television stations gave us coverage on the evening news, and we had an article in the Green Bay Press Gazette. Check our school's website, Events page, for pictures! St. Thomas More Student Council.
This report is coming from the home of the Earth Day Groceries Project,
Arbor Heights Elementary School in Seattle, Washington! Once again our
school has teamed up with the Arbor Heights Safeway to spread the message
of Earth Day to our community.
We delivered 464 beautiful bags two days before Earth Day. We were met
by the assistant manager, Julie. She showed us the wall over the produce
department - covered with bags made by us (the third graders from Room
12), and then took us to the back of the store where each student got a
super snack bag - something fun to eat on our walk back to Arbor Heights
School. Thank you, Julie!
We also delivered over 50 bags from a Campfire Girls group affiliated
with our school. So, our total is about 525 bags! We had a contest at
our school this year. The five classrooms with the best looking bags (as
determined by an impartial panel!) received a $20.00 gift certificate from
Safeway - so they could buy some treats for an Earth Day Party. The
winners were Rooms 3(AM), 9, 15, 22, and 25. Thanks to our PTSA for
covering that expense!
So this is our sixth year doing this project. Most of the great students
at our school know all about the Earth Day Groceries Project - or at least
about decorating bags. Most of the fifth graders have done the activity
every year since they were in kindergarten! We put up a real big map of
the US in the front of the school, and the kids from Room 12 have been
busy pasting reports (over 1,000!) to the wall around it and putting dots
(with numbers for the amount of bags made) on the many states, provinces,
and countries participating. It's been a great geography lesson.
We'll have some pictures of the kids from Room 12 on the web site soon.
We were slowed down some by the theft of our digital camera during a
break-in a couple of months ago. We're doing scanned photos this year.
Happy Earth Day, 1999! Wait 'til Earth Day 2000!
Mark Ahlness
mahlness@cks.ssd.k12.wa.us
Teacher, grade three at:
Arbor Heights Elementary School
http://www.halcyon.com/arborhts/
Bonnie Svingen
Lincoln Middle School
Pullman, WA, USA
Bags decorated: 825
Comments: It was really fun for the kids and the customers in both Dissmore's and Safeway liked the bags that we colored! We can make a difference!
Sharon Wilson
Park View Elementary School
Mooresville, NC, USA
Bags decorated: 850
Michelle Williamson
Midwest Central Primary School
Manito, IL 61546
Bags decorated: 225
Comments: Great project--the kids love it and community members ask about it!!!
Thanks!!!
My name is Lynne Rappaport and I am writing on behalf of Lakeshore
Alternative Elementary School in San Francisco, California (part of the SF
Unified School District). This year was our first time participating in
your wonderful grocery bags project; I was the parent volunteer coordinator
for Lakeshore. Students from kindergarten through grade 5 decorated 586
grocery bags (we have about 640 students total). The bags were loaned to us
by Lucky Supermarket, courtesy of store manager Don Borg. I took a roll
of color pictures of a sampling of the bags and the grocery clerks at the
store--could these be included in the website? (forgive my computer
ignorance; these pictures were taken with a regular Olympus camera, not a
digital camera, and I don't understand the technology well enough to know
if they could somehow end up appearing on a computer screen! I look forward to
seeing our report on the website. Thank you so much
Lynne Rappaport
George Gemma
Image Elementary
Vancouver, WA 98682
Bags decorated: 375
Comments: Well received by other teachers for a project; and well received by the cooperatring store and customers when they received a decorated bag with their groceries.
Bonnie Jeroslow
Miami, Florida
Bags decorated: 400
Comments:
Our Science Specialist found the article about the grocery bags project by chance and with the help of a very interested
teacher was able to launch the program quickly. The students and teachers were very excited and did a beautiful job
decorating the bags. The store owners (two) were quite impressed with the outcome and have asked to participate
again next year.
Gail Clawson and Bill Clausen
Oakridge Middle School
Naples, Florida
Bags decorated: 300
Comments: This was our first year in the project so we started with 5 eighth grade and 5 seventh grade classes. Our local Publix managers were very receptive and accommodating and the students just loved decorating the bags. They really became works of art with important environmental messages. When we took a group of students to Publix to deliver the bags, the managers were very impressed with the quality of the work and both sudents and Publix are enthusiastic about expanding the project next year.
We really enjoyed decorating bags for our local grocery store, Larry's
IGA in Kansas City, Missouri. Our first grade classes at Symington
Elementary, also in Kansas City, decorated over 100 grocery bags. Thank
you for this great opportunity to show our community how much Earth Day
means to us!
Thank you,
Carlye Duensing
Lori Moonan
Brookside Place School
Cranford, NJ USA
Bags decorated: 380
Comments:
All of the children at Brookside Place School enjoyed informing the public who bought groceries at Kings' Supermarket in Garwood, NJ about environmental concerns. The bags were beautiful and informative.It was a very special Earth Day 1999.
Margaret Moore
Kunkel Elementary School
Middletown, PA
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: This is the second year Kunkel Elementary School has participated in the Groceries Bag Project. This year we had 100% student participation. Kindergarten through 4th graders decorated 500 grocery bags for Fox's Market. Third graders enjoyed a visit to the store on Earth Day. A local newspaper printed a picture of the children on the tour. We even received a thank you note from a grateful shopper. She thanked the children of our school for caring for our planet. We look forward to doing more of the same next year. Let's keep this project going!
Tammy Beadles
Robert B. Grove Elementary
Bags decorated: 628
Comments: The children in our whole school decorated the Earth Day bags in our art class. The children loved doing it. Neat project!!!! They liked doing something for the community.(:
Dierdre Haas
Broadmoor Junior High
Pekin, Illinois, USA
Bags decorated: 250
Comments: This was a wonderful idea that we used during our week of environmental activities. The students, teachers, and recipients of the grocery bags loved it!
http://www.pekin.net/pekin108/bmoor/earth/index.html
Diane Bockenstedt
Guttenberg Community School
Guttenberg, IA, United States
Bags decorated: 579
Julie Colaw
Maysville Elementary School
Maysville, WV, U.S.
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: The students at our school really enjoyed decorating the bags and having an opportunity to show the community that they care! Thanks for such an easy to implement project.
Jeanne Kumagai
Patricia Nixon Elementary School
Cerritos, CA USA
Bags decorated: 610
Comments: Thanks to Ralph's Store director Dave Wentworth of Store #165 in Lakewood, CA for supplying the bags! The students enjoyed this activity!
Kim Driver
Lewis Central Kreft Elementary
Council Bluffs Iowa 51501
Bags decorated: 600
Comments: I felt that the grocery sacks were a wonderful idea. The kids really enjoyed doing them at our school.
Hi,
We participated in your Earth Day project. We are from Dracut High School,
in Dracut, Massachusetts. Our Environmental Science Club coordinated this
project. Computer Science, Environmental Science and Art classes designed
the paper bags for Market Basket. This was a great project, and the students
enjoyed working on the bags the day before our school vacation.
Thank you for the great idea.
Susan McGregor
Computer Science teacher
Edith M. Rich
South Toms River Elementary
South Toms River, NJ
Bags decorated: 115
Comments: What a great project! Five classes of fourth and fifth graders decorated grocery bags. They were handed out at the "Quick Check Convenience Store" in South Toms River. We all had fun. Thanks for this wonderful idea!
Chapman Elementary School
Susan Lewis
6500 Putnam Ford Road
Woodstock, GA 30189
Some first grade classes from Chapman participated in the Earth Day
Groceries Project. Kroger of Towne Lake was our partner and donated 175
bags. The students decorated the bags using construction paper, markers,
and crayons. Kroger used the bags for groceries on April 22, 1999. By
5:00p.m. all of the bags were gone. The students enjoyed being involved
with this project. They were more aware of the impact they could make on
their community with some effort. What a great idea. We look forward to
participating again next year!
Sincerely,
Susan Lewis
Becky Ferguson
Manchester Elementary School
Port Orhard, Wa 98366
Bags decorated: 300
Comments: The teaches participating in our collection were: Barb Scott, Sally Makfinsky, Sharon Vetter, Marilyn Crawford, Cathy Banks, Sabrina Westermann, Sharon Stritzel, Diana Snow, Michele Noble, Marge Berghoff, Katy Benson, Ann Giantvalley, Chuck Perkins, Linda Wilson, Chuck Vaughn and Mike O'Neil.
Our school district if South Kitsap School District
Cynthia L. Senenko
Chartwell School
Seaside, CA USA
Bags decorated: 100
Comments: This was a great project. We have a student body of 72 children and were pleased to have everyone participate. Two of my students and I were interviewed on KION News Channel 46's (Salinas, CA) morning show. They were very interested in the project and making the community aware of our Earth Day projects. It was a great experience for my students to be able to see the television studio and be on television. This project, along with some others, really helped the children become more aware of what Earth Day is and what we should be doing everyday to save the Earth. Thank you, this was great!!!
Mary Ryan
Glenside Weldon Environmental Science Club
Bags decorated: 1,000
The project generated a lot of interest and discussion among school, business, and community members. It was a great way to involve everyone and focus attention on Earth Day. We capped off the project with an upbeat assembly which featured speakers, and original music, theatre, essays, and poetry by the students.
We are located at Glenside Weldon Elementary School in Glenside,
PA, 19038. We are part of Abington School District in Montgomery
County.
The children at St. Andrew School had a great time creating slogans for the earthday grocery bags. Our school has an interdisciplinary project that goes all year long. We have 350 students in our school. We divide up the students in grades K-8 into equal groups with about 2 students from each grade in each group. We do large school projects together. So far this year we have had an International Day, now an Earthday Grocery Bag Day, and at the end of the year, an Olympic Day. We want to thank Jewel and Dominicks stores for helping to make this project possible and for helping our kids feel that they made a difference in their community.
Patricia Mazzeffi
Our school is Ascension of Our Lord in LaPlace, LA. Thanks a lot! Mrs. DiMaggio's eighth grade reading students decorated over 100 bags participating in this great project. The bags were then returned to our local Winn Dixie for shoppers the day before Earth Day. In addition, these students designed and displayed six Earth Day Bulletin boards around our school, including information about Earth Day, endangered animals, and how to recycle. It was a great week for all of us. The plants that we planted are still blooming around our classroom!
Mrs. Amy DiMaggio
Reading Teacher
Ascension of Our Lord School
LaPlace, LA
Cameron Lewis
Maclay School
Tallahassee, Florida
300 Bags decorated for our first year participating
Comments: Earth Day has never been such fun! Maclay School, a private
K-12 school here in Tallahassee, Florida, participated in the 1999 Earth
Day Groceries Project. Most all of our incredible, creative
Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders decorated grocery bags for the
nationwide project. We spread the message to our families and friends in
Tallahassee that Maclay School is doing what it takes to care for our
environment. With the enthusiastic support of both Albertson's and
Publix, we successfully communicated many messages encouraging reducing,
reusing, recycling, and treating the Earth we live on with respect.
Thanks for your grand idea. The expressions and feedback from the
community members receiving the colorful Earth Day bags make it all
worthwhile. I can't think of a better way to promote environmental
awareness. We'll see you next year!
Beth Hebert
Paul Keyes Elem
Irving, Tx
# bags decorated: 605
What a wonderful way to involve the community and schools in helping to preserve our home, the Earth. Our art teacher, Cindy Lunn, volunteered to do this project with our entire school. Children in grades K-5 participated by decorating bags from two area grocers. The stores involved were Albertsons and Carnival. Before decorating the bags, Mrs. Lunn showed students the Earth Day Bag web site. The children got very excited to see that other kids around the world were helping to remind their communities to "reduce, reuse, recycle". Thanks for taking the time to put this on the internet. I'm sure we'll be back next year.
Emily Hungerford
Aldert Root Elementary
Technology Specialist
Raleigh, NC
Decorated: 102 bags
Comments: Four classrooms including second, third and fourth graders
decorated grocery bags which were returned to Wellspring Grocery in
Raleigh. Children also read the archives on the earthdaybags.org site,
referred to your Earth Day slogans for decorating the bags and read
about the many different suggested uses for paper bags. Root's science
teacher organized a Forest Festival for April 23 and decorating the bags
was a wonderful addition to the science events.
My name is Tara Piechowski. I am a teacher at Lakeside Elementary School
in Silver Lake, MN. We participated in the Earth Day Bags Designing
project as a way to educate others about ways they can save the earth. We
have 145 students in our building, and we designed 215 bags that were
distributed at the local Cashwise Foods. Our students found this to be a
very exciting project, and they loved the idea of people taking their bags
home with them. They have already want to make a higher goal for next
year! What a great project. Thanks for making it so easy to join in with
the rest of the nation!
Judy Morgan
Scioto Elem. School
Commercial Point, Ohio USA
Bags decorated: 415
Comments: The second graders at Scioto Elementary School were
very concerned about the environment. We wanted to
do something to make the community around us more
aware of our concerns. Then, we happened upon the
Earth Day Bags project on the internet. We contacted
Joel Albanese, the owner of the Ashville I.G.A, and he was
happy to special order the bags for us to decorate. The
whole school joined us, and we ended up sending 415 bags
over to the store to pass out. We were written up in the
paper, and received a lot of nice comments from our
community about this project. Now we feel real good about
ourselves, thanks to your fabulous internet project.
Thanks!
2nd Graders
Scioto Elem. School
Comm. Pt., Ohio
My name is Roger Bryant. I am a Forester for Mead Coated Board Division,
Inc. in Carrollton, Georgia. A friend sent me an email telling me to check
out www.earthdaybags.org. Upon checking out the website, I knew this was
something I would have to get involved with. I wrote letters and attached
all the information about the project to the schools in my county. The
response and enthusiasm from the schools was overwhelming to say the least.
A special thanks goes out to Kroger of Carrollton (Ken Young and Anthony
Fazio) for providing and distributing 1730 bags. Also, thanks to Piggly
Wiggly of Bowdon (Brad Jones) for providing and distributing 1125 bags. An
article about the project was run in our local newspaper, the
Times-Georgian. Mead also provided over 4000 "Happy Earth Day" stickers to
local schools to give to the students. Listed below are the schools that
participated and the number of bags decorated:
Bowdon Elementary School (Bowdon, GA): 700 Bags
Bowdon Primary School (Bowdon, GA): 425 Bags
Roopville Elementary School (Roopville, GA): 400 Bags
Sand Hill Elementary School (Carrollton, GA): 900 Bags
Villa Rica Primary School (Villa Rica, GA): 300 Bags
Whitesburg Elementary School (Whitesburg, GA): 130 Bags
Grand Total: 2855 Bags
This is a wonderful program! I look forward to Earth Day 2000. I plan to
expand my efforts to more counties, more schools, and more grocery stores
in order to reach more people. Remember to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle!
Roger F. Bryant
Mead Coated Board
366 Strickland Road
Carrollton, GA 30117
I saw the information about your project in the NSTA newspaper in January. We did the project in our school, great connection with our grocery store. We did 373 bags. Our school is
Hoover Elementary School,
K through 5,
West Branch, Iowa 52358.
thank you
Karen Rushton, first grade teacher
Sara Graham
Parkside Elementary
Buffalo, MN USA
Bags decorated: 925
Comments:
Thanks for the great earth day project! It was really meaningful to do something for our community!
Karen Reed
Anthony T. Lane Elementary
Alexandria, VA
Bags decorated: 220
Comments:
The classes had a lot fun doing this project! The bags looked great! The grocery store across from the school was more than willing to help us with this project! What a great idea!
Dorothy Wilson
Longfellow Elementary School
Pasadena, California USA
Bags decorated: 350
Comments: Longfellow Elementary School received 350 paper grocery bags from RALPHS Grocery Company, a supermarket chain in Southern California. Longfellow is a school of 940 students and 41 classes. Our primary classes decorated the bags with trees and other plants. EARTHDAY, April 22, 1999, was a BIG EVENT at Longfellow School. TreePeople, an environmental group dedicated to planting trees in urban areas, along with Pasadena Beautiful selected Longfellow School as a place for beautification in Pasadena. Local businesses and organizations donated funds to plant 50 trees on the Longfellow campus and along two surrounding streets. All 41 classrooms planted and named its own tree on EARTHDAY. We had more than 200 tree specialists, volunteers and visitors at Longfellow on EARTHDAY. California Governor Gray Davis selected the Longfellow EARTHDAY Celebration as the site to announce his $3.1 million forestry initiative for the greening of California which will give matching grants to schools and cities that plant trees in urban settings. The Governor planted a camphor tree on the Longfellow campus. The grocery bags from RALPHS supermarket were hung along the corridor through which the Governor was expected to pass. The bags were also hung on transportable bulletin-boards-on-wheels that were placed at the outdoor ceremony for display. The Longfellow primary students enjoyed decorating the bags with earth scenes. The whole Longfellow student population appreciate the trees as objects of beauty on our campus, as a source of shade on hot days, and as a source of oxygen in the atmosphere. The Longfellow students were intensely focused on the tree planting process through the expert guidance of the TreePeople specialists. The specialists are well trained in forestry knowledge and in strategies for capturing and maintaing student attention and motivation. EARTHDAY was a wonderful day at Longfellow Elementary School. Longfellow is particularly grateful to the businesses and organizations of the Pasadena community for their contributions to the beautification of Longfellow. We are grateful to Coleen Shine for telling us about the Grocery Bags Project and sending by U.S. mail the instructional posters for the Project to Longfellow School.
Happy Earth Day, 1999!
Return to Reports from 1999
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