Pennsylvania Earth Day Groceries Reports - 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!
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.
Greetings from Lower Pottsgrove Elementary School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania! The students, staff and parent volunteers at Lower decorated 1,000 bags! We gave 600 bags to Kemp's Market and 400 bags to Thriftway Supermarket. We have included some wonderful pictures from our efforts! Jonathan in Mrs. Murphy's 5th grade class is showing his Earth Day bag! We displayed some bags in an environmental bulletin board. We also have a second grader working with his Pre-first buddy. Some other pictures include 2nd and 3rd graders as well as some students from Miss Bonekemper's AM and PM Kindergarten classes showing they want to help the Earth!
As always the project was enjoyed by all...see you next year!
Mrs. Costanzo
Second grade teacher
Susquehanna Community Elementary School is participating in the sixth annual Earth Day Groceries Project! Students in grades K-6 decorated approximately 900 grocery bags with environmental messages. On Earth Day, April 22nd, and all during that week, these bags will be passed out (full of groceries) to shoppers at Fred's Market and Schneider's Market. Besides carrying an environmental message, each bag will also have some wonderful artwork. The people in our community will hopefully get a very clear and positive message that the students at our school care about their environment.

Thank you,
Robert Keyes
Elementary Principal
Lorie Fallon
The fourth grade students at Upper Allen Elementary School in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania participated in the Earth Day Grocery Bag Project for the first time this year. The students decorated over 200 paper grocery bags with colorful environmental messages in celebration of Earth Day 1999. Giant Foods on Cumberland Parkway in Mechanicsburg donated the bags for the students to decorate, and Giant will distribute the bags (packed with groceries) to its customers on Earth Day, April 22, 1999. The students enjoyed this Project, and it helped them to gain an increased awareness about Earth Day and environmental conservation.
The Fourth Grade Teachers:
Mrs. Ressler, Miss Harrington, Miss Wampler, Mr. Miller, and Mrs. Shuff (Student Teacher)
Geoffr3620@aol.com
Team D sixth graders at Dorseyville Middle School of the Fox Chapel Area School District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania took great pride in celebrating Earth Day. The students created community awareness by decorating 52 grocery bags. Their messages of concern were beautifully designed by using various art media. These were then put on display in the hallway to share with other students. Photos of the children working in their science classes on this Earth Day project and some of their finished designs are included.
Tracey Zigo
Computer Coordinator
Dorseyville Middle School
Pittsburgh, PA
Marji Romanski
The Walden School
Swarthmore, Pa.
Bags decorated: 200
Comments: The students decorated 200 bags this year and we took them to the local Co-op in Swarthmore. This is our third year, and the children were so excited about the idea of someone getting "their" bag filled with groceries! We had the entire school participate, from preprimary students through the eighth grade. This is a wonderful program and we look forward to next year!
Tami M. White
Monongahela Elementary Center
Monongahela, PA 15063 , USA
Bags decorated: 550
Comments: I actually got the whole school involved myself. The teachers thought it was a wonderful idea, and the students really enjoyed creating the bags. The local grocery store, Fisher Heights Giant Eagle, was the store that participated in the project with us. So many of our students made their parents go grocery shopping on Earth Day, just so they could get a decorated paper bag to use over and over again. We all loved participating in the project, and will certainly do it again next year!
Angela Bubb
East Derry Elementary
Mifflin Co. School District,Lewistown, PA
Bags decorated: 359
Comments: My students studied the reason as to why we celebrate Earth Day. Most of these students I have had for two years, so they can recall the discussions we had last year on Earth Day. We did a Shortest Shower Award, where the students timed the amount of water they used in a week to take a bath or shower, and ways we can reduce the amount we use. The grocery bags were a great project for my class since I teach Learning Support in grades K-5. It was easy, there was little writing involved, yet they could participate. We got the whole school involved and made sample bags to show how our project worked. The Sentinel newspaper in our area did a front page article about our project and another local newspaper took pictures of us presenting the bags to Weis Market. We promise to continue this great Earth Day project and make our community aware of the problems we are creating for our future. Thank you for making my "special" students feel proud of their contribution to! society!
Pat Zimmerman
Benner Elementary
Bellefonte PA
Bags decorated: 22
Comments: The children loved doing a community service project. This activity came on the heels of a unit about tropical rain forests and made the students feel like they could make a difference!!
Jan MacPhail
Marzolf Elementary School
Pittsburgh,PA 15209
Bags decorated: 472
Comments: This was a great project for our students, grades K-4. Everyone enjoyed decorating their bag. Foodland grocery store was very cooperative with the project. We're looking forward to doing this again next year.
Melissa D. McKee
Fred S. Engle Middle School
West Grove, PA, USA
Bags decorated: 85
Comments: I think it is great that you have a website in which to record this event. I have done this project in previous years but have just found out about the website this year. The students really enjoyed decorating the bags and were really focused on the idea of promoting environmental awareness as well as helping the community - school connection. The grocery store that donated the brown bags also gave us a $10.00 gift certificate to award to the student who decorated the best bag. This helped to ensure that the students would try their best when designing the Earth Day decorations. Thanks for promoting this great project. I look forward to engaging in the activity again next year. Please send any promotional information you have to help make next year even more successful. Thanks again!
Sincerely,
Melissa D. McKee
Fred S. Engle Middle School
107 School House Road
West Grove, PA 19390
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.
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
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!
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!!
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.
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!
Susan Mullen
Turnpike Elementary School
Mildred, PA 18632 USA
Bags decorated: 600
Comments: The students and teachers really enjoyed this project. We ask our two local supermarkets in this small rural community to donate 300 paper bags each. The students then decorated 2 bags each and returned them to me. I in turn took all 600 of the paper bags to the grocery stores and they used them yesterday on Earth Day to increase awareness of Earthday in our community. It was a great success according to the checkout people at the grocery store as the shoppers were excited to get a decorated brown paper bag! Thank you!
Jim Davis
Allegheny Valley Elementary School
Clarendon, PA, USA
Bags decorated: 40
Comments: My science classes had fun with this project. Kondak's Market provided us with the bags.
I coordinated the project for my elementary school here in East Stroudsburg, PA. We decorated 371 grocery bags which were donated by Mignosi's IGA in Marshalls Creek, PA. It was an easy and fun project to do. Thanks!
Pat Sedlak
Middle Smithfield Elementary
5180 Milford Road
East Stroudsburg, PA 18301
We had the entire school participate in this year's grocery bag project !! Here at Conestoga Valley Middle School in Lancaster, PA , the student body of 550 decorated paper bags from the local Giant. We delivered them to the delight of the customers and staff. Some of the students got their picture in the local paper. This year's project was a great success !! Happy Earth Day 1999 !!
Thank you.
ROGER CAMPBELL
CVMS
500 Mount Sidney Road
Lancaster, PA 17602
Lockheed Martin, Young Minds at Work
Lockheed Martin, CPC Facility, ESH Department
Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Bags decorated: 28
Comments: The Lockheed Martin Facility located in Newtown, Pennsylvania incorporated the Grocery Bag Project with our Young Minds at Work Day. Our "Young Minds" have done a super job in decorating the bags with their Earth Day messages. We hope our messages have an impact on the shoppers in our area. Thank you for the opportunity to be part of the Nationwide Earth Day Celebration.
Donna Eaton
Waterford Elementary
Waterford, Pennsylvania, USA
Bags decorated: 224
Mrs.Keller
Millville Elementary School
Millville PA USA
Bags decorated: 20
Tracey Dlugosh
Leo E. Solomon Plains Memorial Elem. School
Plains, Pennsylvania,USA
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: AS SOON AS I FOUND THIS PROJECT ON THE INTERNET I FELL IN LOVE WITH IT. I WENT DIRECTLY DOWN TO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE FOR THE BIG "OK", AND THEN TO OUR LOCAL GROCERY STORE. THEY THOUGHT IT WAS A GREAT IDEA ALSO. THE KIDS TRULY ENJOYED IT. I CAN'T WAIT TO GO SHOPPING TODAY TO SEE WHOSE BAG I GET!!!!! SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!
Carol A. Little
Charles F. Patton Middle School
760 Unionville Rd. Kennett Square,PA 19348
Bags decorated: 282
Comments: We have photographs to download, and hope to have double the bags next year! Best wishes!
Michael Podolsky
McDaniel Elementary School
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Bags decorated: 206
Comments: Our students had a wonderful time making the Earth Day bags. The manager of Shoprite was also very nice and very willing to participate in this project.
Joan Mansour
George G. Blaisdell Elementary
Bradford, Pa 16701
Bags decorated: 400
Comments: I happened to find this activity one day while browsing through Yahooligans. We are always looking for activities for our fourth graders. I took this idea to my team-we are five fourth grade teachers. Everyone liked the idea. We contacted our 3 supermarkets; all the managers were very interested, so they gave us a total of 4oo bags which we decorated and delivered for use on Earth Day.
Brenda Sweeney
Woodlyn Elementary, Ridley School Dist.
Woodlyn, PA USA
Bags decorated: 175
Comments: What a motivational and educational experience! The students really enjoyed decorating the bags and sending them to our brand new grocery store (ACME). The activity was developmentally appropriate for all ages and touched the lives of everyone who participated.
Sandra Eshleman
Coebourn Elementary School
Brookhaven,PA
Bags decorated: 360
Comments: I am a new member of the internet scene and came across this project by chance while searching for Earth Day ideas. Our school thought this was a wonderful way to promote community awareness and our local store, GIANT, was receptive to the idea. The children enjoyed the project and were extremely creative in their designs.What a great way for everyone to get involved! Sign us up for next year!
Beth Regan
Forbes Elementary Schoool
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Bags decorated: 410
Comments: Our students really enjoyed decorating the bags for Earth Day. Our local grocery store was more than happy to donate the bags. Our shool has an Environmental focus so this project was just perfect for us!! Looking forward to doing it again next year!
Amy Zakorchemny
Aston Presbyterian Church Daycare
Aston, Pennsylvania, USA
Bags decorated: 90
Comments: I think this is a really wonderful project. It not only helps the children learn about the Earth but it helps them to do something to help the Earth. It also allows the children to show people in their neighboorhood that they care about the Earth. It gives the children a chance to express their feelings about the Earth and try to get others to also care.
Warren Young
Shipley School
Bryn Mawr, PA
Bags decorated: 175
Comments: Every student in grades 1-4 decorated a grocery bag (175 bags) during science class. This was our first year participating in this project and we felt it was very successful. Our local Genuardi’s provided the bags. I was amazed at how well the children worked around the advertising on the bags. Some even used it as part of their theme. The store displayed a dozen of our bags but told us that they could not use the decorated bags for groceries due to sanitary concerns. Since most of the children wanted to keep their bags, it was not a major problem. However, some were concerned that this defeats the purpose of the activity. Because of this we may try another grocery store next year.
Our school, Tilden Elementary School, Hamburg School District, Hamburg, PA, has participated in the Earth Day Grocery Bag Project. We are grades K-2 and have an enrollment of 310 students. Food Lion in Hamburg provided the bags for us to decorate and they were delivered to the store for distribution on Earth Day.
The students are very excited to be participating in a national project. We found the activity to be a simple, yet effective way to get the Earth Day message across. We thank you for the terrific idea and can't wait for the feedback from the community!
Sincerely,
Mary Sweeney
Kindergarten Teacher
Gab Langmann
St. Margaret of Scotland
Greentree, PA USA
Bags decorated: 32
Comments: We saw your page in Weekly Reader and we did it! We were going to to it before we saw the page.
Bags decorated: 50
Comments: This is the first year I have heard of this project. We had such a wonderful time with this assignment.I completed this activity on a small scale with my class, and would like to expand this activity next year!
Kimberly Newman
Edwin H. Vare Middle School
Philadelphia, PA , USA
Bags decorated: 250
Comments: We are working for the second year with our local Giant Eagle Grocery Store. We are a small lab school (K-6) with about 90 students total. We love this project!
Dr. Catherine Stephenson
University School- Indiana Univ. of PA
Indiana, PA 15705 USA
Bags decorated: 509
Comments: Our student council members were very impressed with the creativity of their schoolmates when it came to decorating the grocery bags and were excited to deliver them back to the store. They hope the community enjoys receiving their groceries in the decorated Earth Day bags and can see that we all need to work together to save our earth! Many thanks to the local grocery store which supplied the school with these bags!!
Angie Bice
Claysburg-Kimmel Elementary School
Claysburg, PA, USA
Bags decorated: 60
Comments: We really enjoyed decorating our bags!!! We hope the Earth Day shoppers will also enjoy them. We hope to do this project again next year.
Kindergarten Teachers
Blue Bell Elementary School
Blue Bell Pennsylvania
Bags decorated: 1800
Comments: Unionville Elementary School students "borrowed" 1800 bags from three area grocery stores. 600 bags from Acme Markets, 600 bags from Super Fresh, and 600 bags from Giant Grocery Store. We are a K-3 building and this is our first year decorating bags for Earth Day. The students were excited and proud to share what they know about environmental education with our community. The store managers were very enthusiastic and impressed with the art work that our students produced.
Jean Krudener
Unionville Elementary School
Kennett Square, PA 19348
Hi! This the second year that our school, Shaw Elementary in North Huntingdon, Pa. has participated in the Earthday Groceries Project. The kids had a great time decorating the bags and the local Giant Eagle will be handing out our 150 bags. We have a little school but but we were glad to participate in the project.Also thanks to the American Forest & Paper Association for sending the kids the pogs and paper bags.
Sue Themis
Bags decorated: 730
Comments: This was a very fun project! All the students loved the project!
Deborah Lohr
Iroquois School District
Erie, PA USA
Thanks for letting us participate in your project! Our Nottingham School,(2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders), decorated 1500 bags from the local Super Fresh and Acme Grocery stores. We had a blast doing it, and the people in the stores (especially Super Fresh) loved the kids' drawings. It is a great way to get the local businesses and community involved and more aware of what we are teaching the children. I delivered the bags today and they will be distributed from Tuesday through Earth Day to any of the shoppers in the area. We may even get some publicity in the local news! We are a small rural community located about 60 miles southwest of Philadelphia in Chester County, PA. Our Official address is Nottingham Elementary School, 736 Garfield Street, Oxford, PA. 19363. We have 740 children in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades, and I am a fourth grade teacher with internet access at home but not at school. Thanks again!
Stephanie DeMott
Bags decorated: 400
Comments: This is the third year we have particpaited in the Earth Day Bag Project. Each year the children and the local Giant Eagle Grocery Store look forward to the project. Tho we are a small school of 350 students, we decorated 400 bags this year. Some of the students voluntarily gave up their recees time to finish up the project. A wonderful project for children to get involved in to show their concern for the environment.
Teresa Soyka
Jackson Elementary School
Mundy's Corner, PA
What a great project! We here at St. Agnes School in Towanda,PA decorated 450 bags. Kindergarten through eighth grade participated, a total of 200 students.
Karen Harris, Science Teacher
Bags decorated: 1,000
Comments: This is our second year with this project and has become one of our absolute favorite activities! Thank you to the Pathmark and Giant Food Stores in Brookhaven for their help in the donation and distribution of the bags and to all the students who truly put their best efforts and artistic abilities into this project!
See you next year!
Terri-Anne Reese
Northley Middle School
Aston, PA 19014
Bags decorated: 230
Comments: The local grocery store where many of the kids shop, Seaman's Market, donated the bags and were very cooperative. All 11 of our classes K-6 participated. The children now want to go to the market to see their bags. We did the Earth Day Bag Project in conjunction with a school-wide reading incentive program call "Reading is Universal." My class chose Earth as their planet for the project. I came across your information while searching the net for Earth related facts. The teachers and children were very receptive to the project. We are a small, rural school located about 15 minutes east of Hershey,PA, which is famous for its chocolate. Thanks for the information. We found the project to be very successful!
Jodie Dieffenbach
East Hanover Elem. School
Annville, PA, USA
Bags decorated: 60
Comments: The three First Grade classes at Boothwyn School really enjoyed this project! It was a wonderful way to promote environmental awareness in our children and in our community.
Dawn Domzalski
Boothwyn Elem. School-First Grades
Boothwyn, Pennsylvania
Bags decorated: 250
Comments: The students of South Hanover were very excited to be involved with the decoraation of the brown grocery bags in order to get the message for Earth Day out. We hope to help others learn about the importance of taking care of our planet.
Gina Brenneman
South Hanover Elemenatary School
Hershey, PA
Bags decorated: 500
Louise Roberts
Westmoreland Elementary School
Trucksville, PA USA
Hi! I just wanted to let you know that our school district, The Hermitage School District, has been decorating grocery bags for Earth Week since 1990. Each year students at Artman Elementary, Grades K-2 and Hermitage Elementary, Grades 3-4, decorate approximately 1000 bags and return them to D'Onofrios grocery store during Earth Week.
We discovered that one bag was still being used 9 months later!! A farmer picks up our newspapers at school to use for cow bedding. Someone brought their papers in a decorated bag. The cycle continues.
Nancy Bires
Bags decorated: 200
Alicia Gismondi/Pat Sienicki-Jackson
Chartiers Valley Intermediate School
Pittsburgh, PA
Bags decorated: 448
Comments: This is the first time that our school has participated in this project, however we we certainly be participating each and every year! The local newspaper came and took pictures and we will be in the paper on April 22, Earth Day promoting saving the Earth and this project!
We are all so glad that you had the iniative to start this wonderful project! We are glad that we were apart of it!
Thanks!
Kelly Hess
4th grade teacher
Klein Elementary School
Erie, PA 16510
Bags decorated: 200
Comments: The Special Needs classes and the six grade classes got together to help educate the people in our community about saving our environment. The students enjoyed making up slogans and decorating their bags.
Mrs. Amy Ewing
Neil A. Armstrong Middle School
Fairless Hills, PA ,USA
Bags decorated: 700
Students from K-6 decorated the grocery bags beautifully. Patrons at Community Market (appropriately named) will be thrilled to receive them. Many thanks to the faculty at Pivik Elementary School.
Linda Innocenti
Pivik Elementary School, Plum Borough S.D.
Plum, PA 15239
Bags decorated: 22
C. Bridgeman
East Hills I.S.A
Pittsburgh, PA U.S.A.
We are doing the grocery bag project as a fourth grade Earth Day activity. We are including the entire school. Our local Giant Eagle was very eager to participate.
Samuel Fiorante
Neshannock Memorial School
New Castle, PA
I have coordinated the project between three elementary schools in my district with over 2000 bags being distributed on Earth Day.
This is our second year and there is alot of enthusiasm from my teachers. Thank you for the great Earth Day project.
Heritage Elementary School
3240 School Road
Murrysville, Pennsylvania 15668
Howard Fisher
What a great idea. We plan to decorate approx. 115 bags from the local Giant and Weis Stores in Newport.
Vicki Shea
Newport El. School
Newport, PA

Pennsylvania Earth Day Groceries Reports - 1998

320
We loved the whole project! Thanks! We want to participate next year, too!
Applied Technology (cayers@tesd.k12.pa.us)
Devon Elementary School
http://www.tesd.k12.pa.us/
Devon, Pennsylvania
Based on information received from the Paper Bag Council of the American Forest and Paper Association:
800 bags
-- Pottsgrove Elementary School
-- Pottsgrove, PA
Based on information received from the Paper Bag Council of the American Forest and Paper Association:
200 bags
-- The Walden School
-- Swarthmore, PA
Based on information received from the Paper Bag Council of the American Forest and Paper Association:
200 bags
-- Step by Step Learning Center
-- Morton, PA
This is the first year for our school to participate. We are a small rural school with one room of each grade K-6. We decorated 225 bags and distributed them to two local grocery stores. The students enjoyed the project and did a great job. We also sent announcements to the local newspaper.
Kelly Terwilliger (kterwilliger@csonline.net)
Bruin Elementary
Bruin, Pennysylvania
Hi,
Our school decorated approximately 250 bags for Earth Day. This included first thru fifth grades.
The children really enjoyed the activity, and I almost hated giving their bags away. some of them were absolutely beautiful. I'm sure people who received them would agree.
One thing you might mention is to be sure that the students do not use marker, as it would run, and make the clients and customers unhappy.
Thanks for providing us with such a great idea...fun, easy, and valuable!
Dana Donahoe (ADonahoe@aol.com)
Hosack Elementary
Pittsburgh, PA
This was the first year our school participated in this worthwhile project. K through grade 4 decorated 500 grocery bags. They were donated by Fox's Market of Middletown. The bags carried a variety of earth friendly slogans and great artwork! Third graders got an extra treat. We toured the store on Earth Day and saw the project in action. The children were thrilled. One shopper personally thanked the child who made the bag she received. Our efforts were written about in the local newspapers and carried on 3 local TV stations. The third graders were even proclaimed "Home Town Heroes" for spreading the Earth Day message. This may have been our first year but it won't be our last. Next year I hope to have 100% classroom participation.
Margaret Moore (MMoore9421@aol.com)
Kunkel Elementary
Middletown, PA
The entire student body at our school (1st thru 4th grade) participated in this wonderful project. Close to 400 bags were carefully decorated and then sent to a local store for distribution on Earth Day. The children (and staff) responded in a positive fashion and we all hope that the community felt the same when receiving the bags!!! Thanks for the GREAT idea!!!
Dawn Davidovich (dawngd@yahoo.com)
Library Elementary School
South Park School District, Pgh. PA
Giant Markets in Danville donated 500 bags to be decorated by our 417 students grades K-5. The local newspapers, The Press-Enterprise and the Danville News reported on the event. The children and teachers had a great time decorating the bags. The project inspired me to organize an Earth Day Classroom which all the grade levels took turns visiting. We showed videos, had exhibits, and activities. The children received coloring books, activity books, buttons, bookmarks, magnets and pogs donated by many generous agencies and foundations. Thank you for the inspiration. We hope to make it an annual event.
Pam Kreis (skreis@hotmail.com)
Liberty-Valley Elementary School
Danville, PA 17821
Your project was great fun. All of us at St. John's had a lot of fun with it. It was great when we got compliments on our artistic abilities. All together we decorated about 240 bags, we're a small school. Myself and the rest of the student body would like to thank Miss. Lisa Wilson and Genuardi's supermarket for their help and support. This is a great project and we really enjoyed it. Thanks a lot.
Mary Kassab (mkassab@webtv.net)
St. John Chrysostom
Wallingford, PA
Mayfair School participated in its first the annual Internet Earth Day Grocery Project. This year, a total of 500 shopping bags were decorated by students in grades first through eight. The bags were decorated with the Earth, Rain forests, exotic animals, people planting trees and people cleaning up litter. Many students outlined their drawings with yarn. The most creative bag featured a drawing of Earth with a band-aid across it. The Logo said "Heal the Earth!"
The Shop Rite supermarket on Frankford and Knorr donated the shopping bags to Mayfair School. On Earth Day, each customer received one decorated shopping bag per order.
Seena Osno sosno@phila.k12.pa.us
Computer Science Teacher
http://www.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/mayfair
Pennsylvania
Happy Earth Day! The grocery bag project was a great idea. We had a terrific time creating bags with environmentally aware slogans and illustrations. Some of the kids did a fantastic job; I wanted to go to the grocery store to get one of their bags! The local supermarket was very generous with the supplies. I hope next year when I have my own classroom to do the project again! Maybe more teachers will get their students involved with the Earth Day project. Lesson plans to write and units to develop....have to go! Celebrate the earth and don't hurt the dirt!
Thanks Again,
Paulette Pallo ppallo@falcon.lhup.edu
Student Teacher
Fifth Grade
Mill Hall Elementary School
Mill Hall, PA 17751
This is our second year participating the the Earth Day grocery bag project. The 367 kindergarten through 5th grade students at Jackson Elementary decorated 412 grocery bags. The bags were distributed at our local Riverside Market in Vinco and the Giant Eagle Supermarket in Ebensburg.
Teresa Soyka (tsoyka@cambrianews.com)
Jackson Elementary
Mundy's Corner, PA
We think this is a good cause. We liked putting the messages on the bags so that people will know what to do. Putting them on a grocery bag is a good idea.
Mr.Trama's 3rd Grade Class (mtrama@itrc.dciu.k12.pa.us)
Ithan Elementary School
Bryn Mawr, PA
Edwin Forrest Elementary School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, decorated 550 grocery bags from the Super Fresh at Rhawn and Torresdale Avenues.
Kathleen Hanratty hanratty@sdp2.philsch.k12.pa.us
The students from 5-F and 5-G at Chartiers Valley Intermediate School participated in this project in conjunction with the Heidelberg Shop-N-Save at Raceway Plaza in Bridgeville, PA. The fifth grade students enjoyed decorating over 100 grocery bags with earth-friendly messages. We only found out about the project last week, so our participation this year was limited. Next year, we would like to expand the project to other classes/grades!
Alicia Gismondi/Pat Sienicki-Jackson (alicia.gismondi@chartiersvalley.k12.pa.us)
Chartiers Valley Intermediate School
Pittsburgh, PA
This was our first year participating in this project. Our entire school, grades K-6, decorated 500 grocery bags. The students did an outstanding job on their artwork as well as their slogans!
Jennifer Hodgkinson (jennifer_hodgkinson@rlasd.k12.pa.us)
Mazie Gable Elementary
Red Lion Pennsylvania
500 bags
6th graders
Terri-Anne Reese (elliott-lhar94a@prodigy.com)
Northley Middle School
Aston, PA
Our entire sixth grade and two classes of the 7th grade are decorating bags for Pathmark in Brookhaven.,PA. In all we hope to decorate over 400 bags!
Gay Lynn Byers (gaylynn@nni.com)
Northley Middle School
Aston, PA
Our students will begin to decorate bags tomorrow to distribute to our local food co-op store in Swarthmore, Pa. I estimate that the children will be decorating approximately 150 bags for distribution on Wednesday, 4/22/98. The students did this last year, and are eager to begin again!
Marji Romanski (art/computer teacher) Waldeneer@aol.com
The Walden School
more, Pa
( I believe I already reported that the children at The Walden School had decorted over 100 bags that were distributed to the local co-op here in Swarthmore. In addition, I received aN e-mail from our local Acme wanting bags as well - in two hours time, the children came up with an additional 50 bags! We really enjoyed this project, and will continue it throughout the year!!)
The science students at Marticville Middle School decorated 400 bags for Earth Day. The bags will be used at John Herr's Market in Millersville, Pennsylvania. The students did an excellent job decorating the bags with environmental messages. They enjoyed participating in the activity. We also had a friendly judging competition of the bags. People from the community, teachers, faculty, and students voted for their favorite bag. We look forward to participating in 1999! :)
Kelly Buhay (kelly.buhay@pmsd.k12.pa.us)
Marticville Middle School
Pequea, PA
This will be our first year participating I got all your info and presented to our principal and she liked the idea.Our local grocery store(Giant Eagle) will be handing out our bags.This is a great idea.We will be decorating 170 bags.
Sue Themis (Suztbn@aol.com)
Shaw Elementary
North Huntingdon,Pa
We have decorated 300 bags(half of our school), however we received a letter a couple of days after the store generously donated the bags that due to sanitary reasons they cannot use them! :(
Any suggestions
Denise A Russo (DRusso556@aol.com)
Grasse Elementary; Sellersville, PA
Norristown, PA

Pennsylvania Earth Day Groceries Reports - 1997

This was my first time with Earth Day Groceries Project and I was able to get around 12 classes involved. All together we decorated 350 bags and displayed them in Giant Food Store, Hershey, PA. I hope to participate next Earth Day and expand throughout all the grades. Thank you for a wonderful project.
Doris Ortyl ortyls@paonline.com
Senior-Penn State-Harrisburg
Nye Elementary-Hummelstown, PA
Harrisburg, PA
The Lancaster Country Day School wanted to announce that they decorated 300 bags for a local grocery store. The bag project was organized for grades kindergarten thru eighth grade, by the K.A.R.E (Kind Acts Returned Everyday) club. This club is made of 26 middle schoolers who plan projects for the school and volunteer in the community. Thank you for the great idea, it will be a new tradition for Country day.
Thanks Again,
The K.A.R.E club
AFMF1997@aol.com
Our students decorated 400 bags for the local Giant Eagle store. The students were very creative and the store manager was thrilled to have the bags to pass out on Earth Day.
G. Ditchcreek rwd440@surfshop.net
Jackson Elementary
Mundy's Corner, Pa.
This is the second year that Hilltop Elementary School, Aston, PA (suburb of Philadelphia) participated in this project. Grades K-4 decorated 450 bags which were distributed through our local Super Fresh market. We are looking forward to participating in next year's project. Thanks to all who make this worthwhile Earth Day activity possible!
Elaine Scarpino elainesc@worldnet.att.net
Evans Falls Elementary School, Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania, decorated 325 grocery bags. For the first time, Evans Falls students participated in the "project" by decorating grocery bags donated by the local Mr. Z's grocery store. I was told by a store representative that the bags could not be returned to the store for them to package grocery orders. This, he said, is due to a state regulation. The art teacher directed the designing of the Earth Day messages during art class. The students then took the bags home with encouragement from their teachers to give them to someone for use during Earth Day week. Elaine Wall elainew@epix.net
Evans Falls Elementary School
Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania
Forrest School decorated 500 grocery bags from the Super Fresh at Rhawn St. and Torresdale Ave. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.It was fun because you got to tell parents not to litter. The whole project was fun because we want to save animals and the earth from harm. It was fun because we got to learn about how to protect animals.
We liked the project because we had fun reading articles about saving animals with our science teacher before we decorated the bags. It's exciting to save living things. It's thrilling that somebody is going to get our bags at the grocery store and read and enjoy our message.
Kathleen T. Hanratty hanratty@sdp2.philsch.k12.pa.us
Cottage & Bleigh Streets Phila, PA 19136
Edwin Forrest Elementary School
http://philsch.k12.pa.us/schools/forrestelem/forrest.htm
The Primary Center children (a multiage arrangement of first and second graders) at Highland Elementary School in Camp Hill, PA participated in this wonderful Earth Day project. The children designed 160 artistic grocery bags! The bags were delivered to a local Weis Markets and distributed on Pennsylvania's Earth Day - April 22, 1997.
Pam Felix felixkp@redrose.net
Highland Elementary
Camp Hill, PA
http://www.wssd.k12.pa.us/HG/HG.home.html
Lower Pottsgrove Elementary is a K-5 school in Pottstown, PA. Students and staff members decorated 730 grocery bags donated by the American Paper and Forest Association. Kemp's Market located in Pottstown, will distribute the bags during Earth week, April 20th-25th. We had a great time participating in a project that promotes environmental awareness throughout the community. We look forward to receving the results of this project. Our school's efforts made the local paper, The Mercury, as well as being shown on KYW-TV's Channel 3, "Cool School" segment on Tuesday, April 15th. Thank you for a great idea! Happy Earth Day! :)
Shari Costanzo (sbcvwc@erols.com)
Lower Pottsgrove Elementary
Pottstown, Pennsylvania
Our school, The Walden School at 100 College Ave., in Swarthmore, Pa. has so far decorated over 250 bags for Earth Day! We will be returning them to the store, Super Fresh on Tuesday morning. Thank You.
Marji Romanski
Project Coordinator
Waldeneer@aol.com
Greetings from Morton Elementary School in Philadelphia, Pa. We are a kindergarten to fourth grade school. The students decorated 500 bags that were donated by the Stop & Shop supermarket. We are the first school in our area to participate in this project.
Seena Osno sosno@sdp2.philsch.k12.pa.us
http://www.phila.k12.pa.us/Schools/Morton/
This is Main Street Elementary's first year to participate in the Earth Day Groceries project. Both major chain grocery stores supported the project with donations. Mark Cook of Bilo Foods and Mike Oviatt of Quality Markets visited the school on April 18 where representatives from each classroom presented the finished bags. First Graders sorted and counted the bags. A total of 564 bags will be distributed on Earth Day 1997.
Alison Billman akbtown@toolcity.net
Main Street Elementary
Titusville, PA
We liked decorating the earth day grocery bags. Mrs. Costanzo is Rachel's kindergarten teacher. Becky helped to count the bags, our school is sending out approximately 800 bags. Our school was on the news. A helicopter came and took pictures of us decorating our bags. We were even in the newspaper. We hope this project makes people stop and think about the earth.
Becky and Rachel Lindgren Berasaki@aol.com
Lower Pottsgrove Elementary
Pennsylvania
The Paper Bag Council sent 400 bags to Landisville Middle School. On Friday April 11, 300 seventh graders decorated the bags with Earth Day messages. The bags are all hanging up on display at our school and we are having a friendly judging contest of the bags. The local grocery stores in the Hempfield School District will be using the bags on Earth Day. Both the students and teachers at our school enjoyed this activity. :)
Kelly Buhay Kelly_Buhay@qmgateway.iu13.pa.us
Landisville Middle School
Landisville, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Earth Day Groceries Reports - 1996

Geeeez...I am so sorry...I must be brain dead...I have so busy I forgot to tell you that we at Turner Elementary in Pittsburgh decorated 280 bags
Hope for more next year...this is the first year for this school

Jim Diederich
diederic@oberon.pps.pgh.pa.us

This is the first year that Dorseyville Middle School has been involved in the Earth Day Groceries Project. Approximately 150 bags were designed with Earth Day messages by our sixth graders. Teachers were quite pleased with the results and feel the students and the community learned some valuable lessons. We plan to expand the activities next year. It's a great project. Thank you for getting it started.

Janet Phillips
Gifted Support Teacher
Fox Chapel Area Schools
Pittsburgh, PA
phillips@chapel.fcasd.edu

Thank you for including me in the Earth Day Grocery Bag event again this year. My students thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I teach at an inner city school in Pittsburgh, PA. My entire school is compsed of sixth through eighth graders. We decorated an returned 1,000 bags this year to the local grocery store. My students were very interested in sharing the idea of saving the Earth with others in this way. Thank you once again for your help and reminder in March. We'll participate again next year, I'm sure.

Sincerely, Debra Simpson, Arsenal Middle School
simpson@oberon.pps.pgh.pa.us

Our fourth grade class organized the Earth Day Grocery Bag project for our school. With the support of the manager, (Mr. Mullen), from our local Super Fresh supermarket, 410 grocery bags are ready for distribution on Earth Day. We are a K-4 school located in Aston, Pennsylvania - approximately 20 south of Philadelphia, near the Delaware border. We are from Hilltop School which is part of the Chichester School District. Many thanks to you and your students for organizing such a worthwhile project!
We would like to receive e-mail from the other schools. HAPPY EARTH DAY!

Elaine Scarpino
Elainescar@aol.com

Pennsylvania Earth Day Groceries Reports - 1995

Just wanted you to know that our 3 third grade classes--76 students-- completed 150 Earth Day bags for 2 small stores near our school. A city newspaper 30 miles a way even came to do a color photo for Sat. edition. Thanks for the project idea. We're waiting anxiously for your reports. 
Chestnut Ridge District--Central Elementary
New Paris, PA 15554
3rd grade
Bonnie Dillner, hsx00015@llpptn.ll.pbs.org
We at Wallingford Elementary School, in suburban Philadelphia, have created about three hundred Earth Day Grocery Bags, to be distributed at the local Acme supermarket. There was an article in the local newspaper about it too.
Thank you for coordinating this easy, fun, visibility-producing project.
--Debbie Wile
Wallingford Elementary School
Near Philadelphia, PA, USA
debbie@forum.swarthmore.edu
The students at Arsenal Middle School in Pittsburgh, PA decorated 415 grocery bags which were delivered to our local grocery store to be distributed Saturday. Thanks for the idea. All of our students became very excited about the project and created some wonderful, inventive bags to make people aware of Earth day. I was so pleased with the project. I can't wait until next year!! We have sixth, seventh, and eigth graders at our school and students from all grade levels participated. I look forward to your reports so that I can share the information with my students and other staff. Happy Earth Day!
Debra Simpson
simpson@oberon.pps.pgh.pa.us
The Earth Day Project went very well at the two schools I am at. Here are the totals.

Chatham Elementary, Pittsburgh, Pa.........302
Madison Elementary, Pittsburgh, Pa.........432

It was really great to be a part of this. I have made certificates for all students who decorated a bag.

Take Care,

Jim Diederich
Pittsburgh Public Schools diederic@oberon.pps.pgh.pa.us
Just a report from Tyrone, Pennsylvania.We are a small rural school district in central PA - near the home of the Nittany Lions (PSU). Our 4 elementary schools total 1,200 students decorated 1,325 bags donated from 2 local grocery stores. We also had an article in our local paper detailing this event and focusing support for Earth Day. I'm looking forward to sharing data with my other schools.
Thanks for a job well done!

Vicki Aults
5th Grade Teacher
vla101@email.psu.edu
This is to announce that Edgeworth Elementary School, Quaker Valley School District, decorated 400 bags for the 25th Anniversary Earth Day Celebration. All students in Grades K-5 participated. Our 6th graders are also going to decorate the bags soon. We worked with our local grocery store, called "Safrans." Lou Safran is the owner. Our local newspaper, the Sewickley HERALD, took photographs of customers getting groceries in our bags, and I'm sure the article will appear in the paper soon. Our community is great for helping our schools!

You will be pleased to learn that one child already received a lovely note from a parent who received her bag. It says:
"April 19, 1995...
Dear Meredith,
I felt so proud to take my groceries home in your decorated bag yesterday. I was so proud that you and some of the other students at Edgeworth chose that project. I see it was for Earth Day. On my bag, you reminded me to "cut pop can rings." I try to remember to do that and my family helps, too! My sister scuba dives and has seen sea turtles caught in pop can rings that were left on the beach and were washed up from the ocean. When she told me about how the they were dying from being caught, I realized just how important it was. Your art work with the bird and the earth was very well done. Your choice of colors and the size of your illustrations really made the bag and message noticeable.
Enjoy the rest of your school year.
Sincerely, Mrs. Martha D. Smith

P.S. I have saved the bag and I am going to display it at a meeting with Dr. Longo next week.
+++++++
(Dr. Longo is the Superintendent of our Quaker Valley Schools.) I loved your project from the first time I saw it last year on the Internet, Mark, but I was too busy. This year I made it a priority, and hope to be back next year.

On Saturday, April 22, 1995, Dr. Bob Fusco, Dr. Joe Marrone and I introduced our "Sewickley Net" to our community in the Large Group Room of our School. It will give our whole community (schools, banks, libraries, hospital, YMCA, etc.) access to the WWW. At our inaugural celebration, we displayed 3 of our Earth Day grocery bags. Unfortunately, I was so busy helping to put the Sewickley Net together, I only read your message about the Grocery WWW page tonight! Oh well, for our next demo, it will be there for all to see....right? Great job! We're proud to have been a small part of it!

Mim Bizic,
Library Media Specialist, Edgeworth Elementary....
bizicm@calvin.cc.duq.edu                  xoxoxo
Gus and Mim Bizic - bizic@oberon.pps.pgh.pa.us
(This school already sent in their "bag count" - Mark)
I was at a conference today sponsored by Wentworth Media of Classroom Connect. People from all over our Tri-State Area attended (PA, Ohio, WV). I showed them all of the pages I had downloaded from your WWW site last night, and they told all of the participants about it. So, there's more advertising for next year's feat!

Also, I sent a few sample pages of your tallies to 5 of our local newspapers..... I think they'll be impressed. What a great job this Mark. We all appreciate it! Thanks again.

Mim Bizic, Edgeworth Elementary School, Sewickley, PA  15143
bizic@oberon.pps.pgh.pa.us
The Porter Township Elementary School in Lamar, Pennsylvania, decorated 135 grocery bags, designed by all of our students K-6. They were then distributed to our local supermarket.


                                                                      |\                                            
Donna K. Dorey                      ____|\__________________|___|_____|_\____
Porter Township Elementary School   ____|/__________|\___O__|___|____@___\___
P.O. Box 276                        ___/|______|\___|___|___|___|________|___
Lamar, PA 16848                     __|_/_\____|____|___|___|__O_________|___
717-726-3857                        ___\|/_____|___@____|___|___________@____
                                        |     @
ddorey@oak.lhup.edu

Pennsylvania Earth Day Groceries Reports - 1994

Boyce Middle School sixth grade students have been most creative in decorating grocery bags for the Earth Day Grocery Bag project during the past weeks. We will be delivering 235 bags to one of our local grocery stores on Thursday in preparation for Earth Day on April 22.
Good luck with your final count. We'll be interested to hear the final results.
Carol Hochman
Boyce M.S. Reading Resource Teacher
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
e-mail addresses: AOL CarolH1541@aol.com.
INTERNET hochman@vms.cis.pitt.edu
My 33 Elementary Enrichment (gifted) students took on your project with a whopping success. They distributed 400 grocery bags to various classrooms in three different elementary schools and returned them to the grocery store on Wednesday, April 20. The grocery store was so intrigued by the project that they displayed the bags in their store before they used them. The students who delivered the bags had their picture taken by the local newspaper and made the FRONT PAGE. I can't thank you enough for bringing this project to me. The students (and our community) have become much more aware of Environmental issues, and the project was a lot of fun! We are from Keystone Central School District in Lock Haven, Pa. As a point of reference, we are about 25 miles from Penn State University. Sorry I couldn't get this information to you by April 21, but I was out of town at a conference and just minutes ago received your e-mail.
Thanks again!
Mrs. Sheila Bauman
sbauman@eagle.lhup.edu
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