1999 Earth Day Groceries Reports - Iowa

Diane Bockenstedt
Guttenberg Community School
Guttenberg, IA, United States
Bags decorated: 579
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.
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
Central Lee 4th Grade/ Mrs. Hassman
Central Lee
Donnellson, IA
Bags decorated: 20
Comments: We enjoyed decorating the bags. We hope the people that got our bags also got our "message".
Barb Valen
ELC Middle School
Estherville, IA 51334
Bags decorated: 15
Kate Sammons
George Washington Elementary
Keokuk,Iowa
Bags decorated: 463
Comments: Weekly Reader ran a "Celebrate Earth Day" supplement in our April 16,1999 issue. My fourth graders and I thought it sounded like a great idea. Although it was rather late, our local Hy Vee loaned us a bunldle of bags and seemed very enthusastic to be particating in this project. I placed the grocery bags in the library along with enough printouts of your suggested ideas for each of the teachers.
The George Washington teachers and students were equally pleased with their end result, for in only a couple of days our 285 students in grades k through 5 had decorated 465 bags. It was a great awareness for both students and community, for Hy Vee displayed some of the bags in their window and the rest, used for groceries, were gone before school let out.
We also called the newspaper and were especially pleased when a colored picture which included one child from each classroom holding a decorated bag along with a brief description of this project appeared on the front page the evening of April 22nd. The project was a huge success. Thank you for sharing your idea with us.
Beth Halkias
Monroe Elementary
Davenport, Iowa 52802
Bags decorated: 80
Comments: Greetings from Davenport, Iowa! Our 5th graders decorated bags and delivered them to Eagles and Jewel Food stores in our area. We hope our Earth Day messages will spread throughout our community and around the world!
KIM ANDERSON 4-1
ELC Middle School
Estherville, IA
Bags decorated: 13
Deborah Lazar
Bryant Elementary School
Dubuque, Iowa
Bags decorated: 800
Comments: This project was facilitated by the 5th grade TACT force, Bryant Schools service organization. Bags were obtained after calling 2 local grocery stores. Aprox. 450 bags from each store were distributed throught 1st -6th grades to have messages drawn on.. Some messages included were:"I can,You can, We both can Make the World a Better Place" with a drawing of the earth "Cleaning Up the Earth Can Be Fun" with a drawing of a clown, "One Earth, One Solution, Many People, Many Hands Get the Job Done Well".
Chris Jensen
Audubon Middle School
Audubon, Iowa USA
Bags decorated: 65
Comments: We were excited about doing this project. We are also going to plant flowers on our playground. The flowers will be arranged to look like the flag.
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: 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 GroceryBagDay, 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
St. Andrew School
Chicago, IL60613
Bags decorated: 60
Comments: First Graders were very creative and enthusiasic about decorating their grocery bags. This activity was coordinated by classroom teachers, the art teacher, the Media Specialist and our school volunteers.
C. Viner
Washington Elementary School
Muscatine, Iowa
Everyone in class designed a bag and it will be displayed at our locol Hy-vee grocery store. There will be 150 bags from our middle school.
Sincerely,
Nathan I., 6th gr.rep.
Johnston Middle School

Johnston, Iowa


Hi! We are decorating grocery bags for earth day. The 2nd and 3rd graders will be working together in cooperative pairs. Our total should be about 56 bags. The participating grocery store is Dahl's. We are getting together next week to decorate them. We think it will be a fun project! Thanks for sharing your ideas!
Mary Reyes
Holy Trinity School
Des Moines, Iowa

1998 Earth Day Groceries Reports - Iowa

Just a note to let you know that our 6th grade science classes at Central Middle School in Muscatine, Iowa, participated in your earth day grocery bag project. We had a wonderful 2 days decorating bags and then hand delivered them to a local grocery store. We will e-mail you a news clipping after it is printed in our local paper.
Robin Griggs TR0905@aol.com
Hi,
Just to let you know our school participated in the Earth Day activity. Grades k-4 at the Wellsburg attendance decorated bags and delivered them on Earth Day. No feed-back yet. The number involved was 132. Thanks again for sharing your idea.
We are located in north central Iowa. About ninety miles north of Des Moines. We are a small farming community. Two neighboring districts joined about seven years ago. I live in the small village of Steamboat Rock. Our population continues to decline. So we are faced once again with changes. That is the possibility of joining yet another district.
Arlene fing@cnsinternet.com
I am a seventh grade science teacher who was looking for a fun and different idea to celebrate Earth Day this Wednesday. I have contacted a local grocery store - Fareway Foods in Johnston Iowa - and they are going to donate 250 sacks for our kids to decorate. It should be a blast!!!!!!! Thanks for the idea.
Debra Johnson (5backhome@worldnet.att.net)
Meredith Middle School
Des Moines, Iowa
Our school district consists of three small towns in a very rural area of Iowa. None of our towns has a grocery store, but a restaurant voluteered their take-out bags for our project. Children in grades K-3 decorated 191 bags which were distributed by Rudy's Rendezvous in Lacona, Iowa, during the week of April 20, 1998. The students used cardboard earth templates to draw a basic design. Crayons made each bag unique. This is our first year as part of the grocery project. It was fun for the whole school community.
BPPresley (BEPres@worldnet.att.net)
Southeast Warren Primary School
Milo, Iowa

1997 Earth Day Groceries Reports - Iowa

Table Mound Elementary School in Dubuque, Iowa, participated in decorating grocery bags for Earth Day. Our Earth Care Club, comprised of students in grades 3-6, distributed 500 bags for students to decorate. Prizes were awarded to the best drawings and message from each classroom. The Eagle grocery store manager was very pleased with the project and has asked us to repeat the project next year. People who bought groceries at Eagle's commented on how much they enjoyed getting the decorated bags. Some of the people even brought the bags back to the school to give back to the students who had drawn and colored them.
Janet McEvoy jmcevoy@hotmail.com
Earth Care Club Advisor
The Graettinger School elementary classes K through sixth colored 150 grocery bags for Earth day.
Becky Masters bmasters@graettinger.k12.ia.us
Graettinger Community School
Graettinger, Iowa
Kindergartners at Robert Lucas School In Iowa City, Iowa, made 60 sacks for the project.
MJSopher@aol.com
We found your project on your web page. Our K-6 building decorated 280 bags.
Thank you.
Nancy Manson mansonn.@aea15.k12.ia.us
Eisenhower Elementary School
Ottumwa, Iowa

WWW.EARTHDAYBAGS.ORG