Illinois Earth Day Groceries Reports - 1999

Galena Primary School participated in the Earth Day Groceries Project for the second year with Dick's Supermarket in Galena, IL. The event was organized by Janann Dostal and Stephanie Lemery. 400 grocery bags were decorated and distributed this year by students in grades Pre-K through 4th. We had a wonderful response from students, parents, and the community again this year!! It was an excellent addition to our celebration of Earth Day.
Janann Dostal
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.
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.
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
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.
Jennifer Roizen
University of Chicago Laboratory Schools' Terra Club
Chicago, Illinois/ USA
Bags decorated: 347
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!!!
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!
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

Prairie View Elementary School in Sandwich, Illinois
Eileen Baird
Just to let you know our Middle School students (6-8th grade) worked with a kindergarten class and our 2nd grade classes to decorate 300 grocery bags for our local grocery store, Jewel, in Fox Lake/Ingleside area. Jewel gave them out on Earth Day. Thanks for a great idea!
Mrs. Nancy Ward - 6th grade teacher
Taveirne Middle School
34699 N. HWY 12
Ingleside, IL 60043
Chris Halweg
Peotone H.S. Future Homemakers of America
Peotone, Illinois, USA
Bags decorated: 1250
Comments: This was the third year the Future Homemakers of America chapter at Peotone High School coordinated the Earth Day Groceries Project for our school district. Students at our junior high and our three elementary schools decorated a total of 1250 grocery bags. Shoppers at Peotone Market Place, which donated the plain bags, were delighted to read the students' messages and really enjoyed their artwork. Thanks to our local store, and to the students who participated!
Kathy Killam/Wayne Joplin
Virden Middle School
Virden, IL 62690
Bags decorated: 350
Comments: Our seventh graders spent an afternoon decorating grocery bags for the Earth Day grocery bag project. The local grocery store, Harmon's, agreed to supply us with the grocery bags. We decorated and delivered them to Harmon's IGA where they were used on Earth Day to sack groceries. Approximately 70 students participated in this project.
Angela Mitter
Carl Von Linne Elementary School
Chicago, Illinois
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: Students at Linne School decorated 500 bags given to us by Jewel-Osco. Twelve classrooms participated this year, our first time being involved in the Earth Day Bag project! Students enjoyed designing the bags with pictures and slogans in celebration of Earth Day. The students and teachers alike were excited to know that these bags would help raise awareness in the community about recycling and the environment. As the students were decorating, Ms. Pagan captured their work with the school's digital camera. We plan to submit the pictures to this website for viewing. During the days following Earth Day, some community members even let the school know that they received bags with our Earth Day messages! Special thanks to our principal, Mr. Giglio, who supported the project and to Mrs. Augustine, our Recycling Chairperson, and Mrs. Pedrosa who coordinated the pick-up and delivery of the bags.
Our school is Chippewa Elementary School. We are located in Palos Heights, IL
Barbara Pour
Peggy McDonald
Virden Elementary School
Virden, IL, USA
Bags decorated: 525
Mrs. Peggy Cole
Sunset Hills School
Pekin, Il U.S.A
Bags decorated: 149
Comments: Our second grade class decorated and colored 22 bags to celebrate Earth Day. We worked very hard on them. We drew pictures of people, animals, and expecially about saving the world. We wanted to remind people to keep our earth clean. The rest of the classrooms in our school decorated 127 bags, bringing the total to 149 bags. The bags were then returned to the grocery store!!
Ms. Charlie Hinderliter
Carmi-White County Middle School
Carmi, IL USA
Bags decorated: 142
Comments: Thanks to the cooperation of our locally owned Chet's Market, the seventh grade students at Carmi-White County Middle School designed 142 grocery bags! This was our first year to participate in the project. The check-out clerks let me know how much they and the customers enjoyed the bags. We are proud of all the students who participated, and I look forward to utilizing this project next year! Thanks for the opportunity.
Charlie Hinderliter, C-WCHS Student Teacher
Sally Nelson
Raymond Marquith Elem. School
E. Galesburg, IL 61430
Bags decorated: 150
Comments: We decorated grocery bags for HyVee Grocery Store in Galesburg this year. This was a new place for us; as the one we have decorated for the last two years are no longer in business. Hyvee was so pleased with this project.
Carol Van De Walle
Audubon Elementary, Rock Island Dist.41
Rock Island, IL 61201
Bags decorated: 100
Comments: We had a great time doing this. HyVee grocery store was very cooperative.
Mrs. Sara Feyen
St. Mary's School
East Dubuque, Illinois 61025
Bags decorated: 165
Comments: The fifth and sixth grade students here at St. Mary's School in East Dubuque, Illinois really enjoyed The Earth Day Groceries Project. We decorated 165 bags with a class of only 18 students. They were real excited to go to Eagles Grocery Store to see if they would get a bag from our school.
Wanda J. Comein
City of Country Club Hills Environmental Commission
Country Club Hills, Illinois
Bags decorated: 2800
(five schools)
Comments: In conjunction with our annual Earth Arbor Day Celebration, every elementary school child in the City of Country Club Hills participated. We were given 2800 bags from our local Eagle Country Market. The best bags, 100, are hanging in our City Hall during the month of April & May.
Jan Francis
Ivy Hill Elementary
Arlington Heights, Il
Bags decorated: 350
Comments: This was a great simple project for the whole school to do. The staff thought it was a wonderful idea and the kids had a blast decorating the bags. Jewel Foods was more than happy to donate as many bags as needed. I also shared this with my husband's school and they participated too! Thanks! Next year we will be in Mexico and hope to continue it down there.
Marybeth Raynes
Matteson Elementary School
Matteson, IL
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: This was the first year our school participated in the Earth Day Groceries Project. Our students decorated 500 bags from Dominick's Grocery Store in Matteson. Some teachers and staff went to the store before school to shop so we could bring the bags back to school and show the children that their bags were really being used. The kids loved it, the teachers loved it, and the community loved it. We topped off all our hard work with an Earth Day assembly that was excellent. Each class performed a short song, poem, or choral reading pertaining to Earth Day. We had a great time! Thanks for the great idea!
From: Giles School
Message: Hello! We decorated 543 bags from Dominick's Food Stores. Our whole community will be using our creatively decorated bags in honor of Earth Day. Also, we are posting pictures of our decorated bags on our school's website.
Sincerely,
James Giles School http://giles.ridgenet.org
Norridge IL
Roy School Garden Club
Roy School
Northlake, Illinois
Bags decorated: 681
Comments: The Roy School Garden Club helped organize this project. The students passed out the bags and got them ready to be returned to the Franklin Park Jewel Food store. The students from kindergarten through sixth grade had fun decorating the bags. We put a small message on the bag and thanked Jewel for helping us to participate in this project. We asked the community to let us know what they thought and how they recycled the bag. The Video Magazine Club has been busy documenting the Earth Bag Project and other displays throughout the building.
Lisa Perez
Stewart School
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Bags decorated: 367
Comments: This was the first time that our school celebrated Earth Day and the grocery bag project was a chief focal point. One student from each class acted as a representative as we delivered our bags to the local grocery store. They were so proud and ready to discuss the environment. Also, we made an important community contact with the manager of the grocery store. Hopefully, we will do this again next year.
Mrs. DiGioia & Mrs. Sedlack class
May Whitney Elementary School
Bags decorated: 23
Comments: We had fun decorating the grocery bags. We decorated them so people would know it was Earth Day. The bags were very colorful and informative. We would like to thank Jewel in Lake Zurich for participating.We are glad you let us participate in this project.
Sharon Cruikshank
Arcadia Elementary School
Olympia Fields, IL
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: We took 500 bags and had the 300 students and 35 staff members as well as patrons from the neighborhood library help in this wonderful project that promotes awareness. The students and teachers of our school decorated the bags with wonderful pictures and slogans about Earth Day. The neighborhood grocery store was just as excited as we were to be a part of this project. We would like to thank Mr. Bob Shehan manager of the Jewel-Osco store in Olympia Fields, Illinois for the grocery bags and Mrs. Patricia Ransford ,our principal, for promoting the project. Thanks for all of the suggestions. We look forward to next year's project.
Neha Shah
Chicago Health Corps - Americorps
Chicago, IL USA
Bags decorated: 150
Comments: I really enjoyed doing this project. It was very simple, but accomplished a lot. Our corps is made up of adults from 22 and up and I think this project provided us with an increased awareness of earth day. We realized there are some very easy things that can be done. great awareness for them as well. The manager at the store was very excited and helpful with the project.
Thanks for the idea.
The kindergarten, third grade, and fifth grade classes at Herscher Grade School in Herscher, Illinois decorated 100 bags for Earth Day. The bags were used by Mario's Market, the local grocery store. Everyone enjoyed this project that reminded us all how important taking care of the Earth is.
Jim Ensley
Mattoon Middle School
Mattoon, IL
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: What a wonderful project! Kids got into it like I couldn't believe. Two days ago we walked the bags to the donating store.
C. Santori
St. Agnes School
Chicago Heights, IL, USA
Bags decorated: 319
Comments: All of our students, Preschool through 8th grade, decorated the grocery bags. They had a great time! Our local Jewel store was very cooperative and very enthusiastic about the students' artwork. The faculty thought it was a great project— they can't wait to do it again next year.
Just a note to let you know that Holmes School, 5800 S. Holmes Avenue, Clarendon Hills, IL 60514 (K-2 school) participated in the Earth Day Groceries Project. The students had lots of fun decorating bags for our local Jewel store. We returned 375 brown bags and hopefully got the message about Earth Day into our community. Thank you for the wonderful activity for environmental education.
Second Grade Teacher
Twila Habegger
Mrs. Susan Van Burk
Fierke School
Oak Forest, Ill. 60452
Bags decorated: 50
Comments: We had a fun time decorating the Earth Day grocery bags.
Connie J. Lee
Summersville School
Mt. Vernon, IL U.S.
Bags decorated: 35
Comments: The kids were very excited about decorating a bag for Earth Day. The local grocery store was very supportive of the idea. I think it is a wonderful way of getting the children involved. Thank you for the great idea!
Lisa Andrews
Central School
Rochelle, IL USA
Bags decorated: 450
Charles R Campbell
What a great idea! I wanted my kids to get involved in Earth Day. We're decorating 50 bags for our local grocery in Carterville, IL. We are Mrs. Campbell's 5th grade science classes at Carterville Grade School in Carterville, Illinois.
Jennifer Turner
Tioga Elem. Bensenville Dist#2
Bensenville, IL 60148 USA
Bags decorated: 400
Mrs. Donna Spears
Lincoln Elementary School
4th grade teacher
Monmouth, Illinois
Bags decorated: 600
Comments: We feel good about telling people about Earth Day. We want everyone to help save the Earth. We want the Earth to be a better place 150 years from now than it is now.
Bags decorated: 352
Comments: Our school enjoyed the project! Next year our whole district would like to participate. Also, I will be emailing pictures to post!
Julie McGann
Hannum School, Oak Lawn IL
Bags decorated: 438
Comments: This project was a hit! The entire school was involved and we decorated a total of 438 bags. The bags will be distributed at Dominick's a local grocery store on Earth Day. The children were very creative and informative with the bags they designed. Thank you for the great idea!
Bridgeview School
Melissa Kutsulis and Mary Giannoulis
Bridgeview, Illinois, USA
Bags decorated: 250
Comments: This project was started after we read our Weekly Reader. My class headed the project and asked the other 4th grade plus the two 3rd grades and two 2nd grade classes to help. The third and fourth grade classes each decorated two bags a piece. We also put an insert in each grocery sack that encouraged people to recycle and re- use. We put posters up in several of the stores in town.
Sue Roberts
Cuba Elementary School
Cuba, Il 61427
Bags decorated: 355
Paulette Clements
Prophetstown Elementary School
Prophetstown IL
Bags decorated: 126
Comments: This is the third year our first graders have participated in the grocery bag project with our local grocery store. This year we decorated 126 bags. Our boys and girls have fun talking about ways to take care of our planet Earth. We come up with various slogans to put on the bags. We know that people in our community like to get our decorated bags from the store on April 22. We hope to increase awareness for everyone about the importance of Earth Day everyday. This is a project we will continue to support. Thank you for the great idea.
Barbara Wenzel
Manteno Elementary
Manteno, IL USA
Bags decorated: 50
Comments: I received 50 bags from Wilb Walkers and will have the kids design their bags today. Hopefully there will be a large interest in the project. Thanks
Mike Jersey
Charleston Teen Reach
Charleston, IL
Bags decorated: 50
Sandy Egner
Cub Scouts Wolf Den 2 Pack 81
Plainfield, IL
Bags decorated: 225
Comments: Our school enjoyed the opportunity to participate in this project. We got the bags from our local grocery store, Safari Market. We also will be having an all school assembly to say the Earth Day Pledge, sing Earth Day Songs, and in general celebrate the day.
Carol Frey
Bristol Grade School
Bristol, Illinois USA
Bags decorated: 500
With the help of our Art teacher, all students from Early Childhood through fifth grade were able to illustrate bags and write earth conscious messages. The students have thanked me for bringing this wonderful project to our school's attention.
Tanya Hughes
Kenwood Elementary
Champaign, IL
Bags decorated: 236
Comments: Students in Kindergarden,First,First Bi-lingual, Second, Third,and Third Bi-lingual,participated in decorating grocery bags. The Jewel on Summit in Elgin was kind enough to donate the bags. I picked them up and returned them to hand out to people. All of the students had a wonderful time decorating and writing messages about keeping our environment clean, and recycling. The students are hoping to take their parents shopping so they can try and find the grocery bag that they decorated. Thank you for this wonderful ideal. I hope to bring it to my entire staff next year so that all of the students at Huff can participate. Thanks Again, Happy Earth Day!
Miss Lewis
Huff Elementary School
Elgin, Illinois 60120, U.S.
Bags decorated: 438
This project began with our two classrooms but then we decided to extend it schoolwide. What a great idea that was! The students enjoyed decorated the bags for Earth Day. The local grocery store was very cooperative and enthusastic. Thank you for the wonderful idea, we plan to continue this project for years to come!
Melissa Kutsulis and Mary Giannoulis
Bridgeview School
Illinois, United States of America
Bags decorated: 800-1000
Were still in the process of getting the bags to decorate, but the bags go out for decoration on Monday! We are proud to be working with our community.
Sharon Hooper
Plum Grove Junior High
Rolling Meadows, Il 60008
Bags decorated: 143
Comments: Rogers Elementary School includes 4th and 5th grades. The grocery bags were donated by Kroger in Pekin, Illinois. They will be distributed on Earth Day. We enjoyed this project and are anxious to go to Krogers on Earth Day to check on the distribution of our bags.
Laura Hughbanks
Rogers Elementary School
Marquette Heights, Illinois 61554 USA
Bags decorated: 300
Everyone was very excited about joining the Project this year and we look forward to making it a year event. Grades K-4 participated and the children had a ball decorating the bags. Our sponsor was Taylor's IGA Store in Carlyle, Illinois who also donated trees to be given out to the children who decorated bags. What a great way to encourage community relations.
Mrs. Judy L. Smith
Breese-Beckemeyer Elementary District #12
Breese, Illinois
The students here at Chippewa Elementary School in Palos Heights, IL are excited about joining in the Earth Day celebration. We are decorating 250 bags to be distributed at our local Dominick's in Palos Heights on Thursday, April 22.
Miss Pat Maresh, Principal
Chippewa Elementary School
12425 S. Austin Ave.
Palos Heights, IL 60463
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: It was Fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mrs. Martha Richey
Edwardsville Middle School (EMS)
Glen Carbon
Bags decorated: 720
Comments: I am on the recycling commitee at South Elementary and was in charge of finding the Earth Day project. The one thing I needed to do was find something that all of the teachers would be willing to participate in. This project was a hit at the school because it was easily done by all of the students and was not time consuming for the teachers.
Alesia Hollis
South Elementary
Crystal Lake, IL, USA
Bags decorated: 375
Will be delivering 375 decorated bags next week to the local Jewel.
Judy Belanger
Highland School
Downers Grove, Il 60515
Bags decorated: 200
Comments: This is the 2nd year K-3 students have participated in this great project to promote Earth Day awareness. Our town recycling service encourages the use of paper bags when sorting recyclables. Our local grocery stores have been flooded with customers requesting our decorated bags. The students wrote their first names on the bags. Since this is a small town, many customers get a kick out of getting a bag decorated by someone they know! Thanks for the great idea. We look forward to doing this again next year.
Penny Thacher, Kindergarten teacher
Mt. Carroll Grade School, CUD 304
Mt. Carroll, Illinois 61053
Bags decorated: 350
Steve Novario
Seneca Grade School
Seneca IL
Bags decorated: 1,630
I'm responsible for the Pollution Prevention Committee in the Renal Division at Baxter Healthcare. I saw this Earth Day Grocery Bag idea on the internet and thought it was great idea. It makes for a great outreach program in the community. Three schools participated. 700 bags were decorated by the students at O'Plaine Elementary School, 730 bags decorated at the Spaulding School and 200 bags at the Woodland School. These schools are located in Gurnee, Il. The Jewel and Domincick food stores were very cooperative in supplying the grocery bags. Another idea would to have your local grocery store sponsor an Earth Day Coloring Poster Contest. Happy Earth Day 1999!
Candy Fishman
School/Organization: Baxter Healthcare
Waukegan,Il. 60085 USA

Illinois Earth Day Groceries Reports - 1998

Based on information received from the Paper Bag Council of the American Forest and Paper Association:
400 bags
-- Moweaqua Elementary School
-- Moweaqua, IL
Based on information received from the Paper Bag Council of the American Forest and Paper Association:
400 bags
-- Hales Franciscan High School
-- Chicago, IL
I teach Jr. High science at Bartonville Grade School in Bartonville, Il, which is close to Peoria. We decorated 400 Earth Day sacks and delivered them to the local grocery store during Earth Day week. The students enjoyed the project and hopefully they and the community were reminded to take care of our Earth. Thanks for the idea.
Linda Roberts llkroberts@hotmail.com
This was the first year for us to participate in the Earth Day Grocery Bag Project, but we will do it again next year.
We decorated 150 bags to be used at a local grocery. The local paper and word-of-mouth made it exciting for the kids to see who got their bag. We put first names only on the bags. Since this is a very small town, we often heard who got our bags!
Next year, I hope to involve more grades and distribute the bags through both our grocery stores. Our recycling service urges paper bags be used to separate items put in the recycling boxes, so we are hoping more of our citizens will get in the habit of asking for paper, a renewable resource.
Thanks for starting such an easy, yet worthwhile project!
See you next year!
Penny Thacher (pthacher@roe8.lth2.k12.il.us), Kindergarten Teacher
Mt.Carroll Elementary, k-3
Mount Carroll, Illinois
I decorated 26 bags for the Earth Week project. I also went to our local Jewel-Osco and persuaded people to use paper bags not plastic for Earth Week. I would like you to e-mail me and tell me how the project went.
Erin M.
St. Michaels Elementary School
CH, IL
Children from the Clara Peterson Grade School (K-3rd grades) decorated 243 grocery bags in celebration of Earth Day. The local Paxton IGA donated and distributed the decorated grocery bags during "Earth Week." In addition, Youth Action Kits were obtained from the American Forest and Paper Assocation and distributed to all children at the school (K-5th grade). The Paxton Jr. Woman's Club coordinated the event.
Susan Heyen (lolo@net66.com)
Clara Peterson Grade School
Paxton, Illinois
Our school participated in the Earth Day Grocery project. We have K-4 students. We decorated approximately 100 bags.
Thanks,
Mary Downs (mdowns78@hotmail.com)
Humboldt Elementary School
Humboldt, Illinois
Hi-
This is the second year Northwest School in Lincoln, Illinois participated. We had a great time decorating 189 bags and delivering them to our local Krogers. Thanks again for sponsoring a great project.
Tamara L. Barcalow tbarcalo@abelink.com
Raymond Marquith, East Galesburg, IL decorated 150 bags for Eagles in Galesburg, IL. The children so enjoy doing this and the store says the customers love them. This is are second year of doing this. Attached is a picture of our students delivering them.
Sally Nelson
Raymond Marquith School
marquith@galesburg.net
Thomas Jefferson School decorated 500 grocery bags for the Larkin Avenue Jewel Store. Our whole school participated. Our 5th grade class was in charge of delivering the bags to the classrooms, and gathering them again, and checking the spelling. It was a lot of work, but it was fun. We decorated the bags with pictures of the earth, and environmental slogans. We have put some of them on this web page:
http://web.isbe.state.il.us/rcoleman/EarthDay.html
Ruth Coleman (rcoleman@mail.isbe.state.il.us)
Thomas Jefferson School
http://web.isbe.state.il.us/rcoleman
Joliet, IL
It was a pleasure for our high school's Future Homemakers of America chapter to coordinate this project for our school district. We again had 100% participation at our three elementary schools: Green Garden, Peotone, and Wilton Center. We also added the Jr. High this year, through the cooperation of the science teachers. Our total was 1,250 bags. Our thanks to everyone for making this a huge success!
Chris Halweg, FHA Adviser (chalweg@mail.peotone.will.k12.il.us)
Peotone High School
http://www.peotone.will.k12.il.us/ch/EarthDay/
Peotone, IL 60468-0399
This is the second year of participation in this most worthwhile activity. Our entire K - 5 school, Ridge School in Oak Forest, IL, decorated 500 bags which were given to us by the Jewel-Osco in Oak Forest. We returned them to Jewel-Osco a few days before Earth Day so they could be used to carry the groceries with messages of environmental awareness. The kids really enjoy this project and are quite interested in making others aware of their concern for our environment.
luvtoteach@earthlink.net
The students at St. Linus decorated 490 grocery bags. the bags were recieved from the local Jewel/Osco and distributed the week of earth day!
Alisa Minarik
St. Linus School
Oak Lawn, IL
Thank you for your project idea. Our school, Richland Grade School, in Crest Hill, IL joined with you in observance of Earth Day. We have about 280 students from grades K-8. All classes had the students decorate bags from our local Jewel grocery store. The store is using them today for their customers. It is too early to know if we will get any feedback. The kids created their own designs. I felt many were very clever.
Judy Brown jbrown@kiwi.dep.anl.gov
1005 Valley Lane
Lockport, IL
Greetings from Wheaton, IL!
At Carl Sandburg School, students in grades K - 5 decorated 427 bags with colorful messages and pictures. This was the school's first official year in participating in this project, although several teachers had previously heard of similar activities. Everyone reported that this was an enjoyable activity at each age level that piqued awareness of environmental issues. Thank you for your easy-to-use information to help us get involved in this wonderful worldwide event.
Christina Hull Hullz@aol.com
(1st grade)
-------------
I am writing from Carl Sandburg School in Wheaton, IL. We sent in our report this morning, but I am writing with an update. We hope that the information included here will possibly prevent other schools from encountering the problems that we did.
We received, decorated and returned the bags to a local grocery store. On Earth Day evening, I went to shop at the store. At that time, I was told that the bags would not be given out because using bags that had been removed from the store was a violation of the county's health regulations. They were planning to throw the bags away. I collected the bags and have since been able to distribute them to a food pantry and a resale shop. Both places were grateful to receive them.
The project was still a very positive experience, but perhaps this information can save some time and effort at other schools in the future.
Dear Earth Day Grocery Project Organizers:
Kruse Cares!
In partnership with our local Jewel/Osco Store, students received paper grocery bags to distribute in classrooms to decorate for Earth Day 1998. Kruse Education Center is part of Community Consolidated School District 146 incorporating sections of Orland Park and Tinley Park, Illinois. Our student population is 452.
Our students decorated a total of 437 grocery bags for Earth Day 1998! 21 classrooms participated in the event, including students from Kindergarten through 6th grade. Students included individual messages on the bags that showed that Kruse students really care about our earth. They learned that part of being earth conscious is to share their message with the community. Students were very proud of their work. Student Council officers delivered the brightly decorated bags to the grocery store in time for Earth Day distribution.
This is the first year Kruse Education Center participated in this great project. Thanks for starting this great idea! We look forward to participating again next year.
Debbie Brennan Brende04@ccsd146.k12.il.us
Our school decorated 200 hundred bags. In my classroom we also took the opportunity to to visit a nearby forest preserve. The forest ranger explained to us what we can do to take care of the forest. Thanks for organizing such a fun project.
Cristina Gillanders (cristigill@aol.com)
C.I.Johnson School
Aurora, Illinois
Raymond Marquith, East Galesburg, IL decorated 150 bags for Eagles in Galesburg, IL. The children so enjoy doing this and the store says the customers love them. This is are second year of doing this. Attached is a picture of our students delivering them.
Sally Nelson
Raymond Marquith School marquith@galesburg.net
Our 45 sixth graders brainstormed Earth Day sayings and ideas and then made bags for our nearby Jewel/Osco stores.
Mrs. Schambach and Mr. Sisler (schambach_j/hl@dns.u46.k12.il.us)
Hillcrest School
Elgin, IL
Number of bags decorated = 307
Mrs. Stephanie Lemery headed the Earth Week Project at Galena Primary School. The grocery bags were gotten from/used at the local supermarket, Dick's, that enthusiastically supported this project. It has been 'great fun.' All week there have been activities related to Earth Day involving students in all grades (K-4). These included a poster contest, a field trip to a community exhibit and many other activities. Plus, each day students from a different grade have done Earth Day related readings over the school P.A. during the time for school announcements. One of the culminating activities will be the planting of a tree which has been donated by a local nursery. Students interest and enthusiasm for this has been growing with each year it is done.
Mrs. Stephanie Lemery & Mrs. B. Mellskog (bmellskog@galenalink.com)
Galena Primary School
Galena, IL
This was the first year that Auburn Elementary participated in the Earth Day Groceries Project. We are a Pre-K through 6th grade building. Everyone participated!! The bags were donated by a local grocery store (Harmons) and a local convenient store (the 104 store). We appreciate their help in making this important project so successful. The students and staff decorated 635 bags. We think that is pretty impressive for our first year doing this project. Through this project, the students have realized that each of us has to do our part in taking care of the earth. They have also learned that the message of Earth Day is a message worth spreading!! We hope to do this project again next year.
Melissa Miller (mmiller2@roe51.k12.il.us)
Auburn Elementary
http://www.sangamon.k12.il.us/auburn
Auburn, Illinois
For the second year the first graders at Manteno Elementary School worked together with Manteno Foods to decorate grocery bags. We decorated 140 bags. Manteno Foods will start distributing them to customers on Earth Day, April 22, 1998. We hope to remind people in our communitiy to take care of our planet. We had fun making our bags look beautiful. We hope our parents and friends will look forward to getting our bags. We'll be there again for the grocery bag project in 1999.
Barbara Wenzel (b_wenzel@yahoo.com)
Manteno Elementary School
Manteno, Il
Our school delivered 228 Earth Day decorated bags to the Eagle Grocery store in Kankakee, Ill. Our local newspaper came and took a picture for the newspaper the Daily Journal We also displayed our project at the Showcase of Kankakee schools at a nearby mall.We really enjoyed participating in this project and would like to do it again next year.We hope to be sending you a picture soon. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to participate in this project and the internet.We invite you to visit our school at our website.
Mary Nachtwey (nachtwmar@k111.k12.il.us)
Lafayette School
http://k111.k12.il.us/lafayette
Kankakee, Illinois
We wanted to let you know that Jane Stenson Elementary School at 9201 Lockwood in Skokie, IL 60077 decorated 375 bags to distribute at our local Jewel food store. We did this as a Student Council Earth Day Project.
http://www.sd68.k12.il.us
Ellen Gruenberg elleng@SD68.K12.IL.US
Earth Day Greetings! Here at Prophetstown Elementary School in Prophetstown, Illinois, our students decorated 367 paper bags for the Earth Day Groceries project. We all had a great time and are plannig on doing it again next year.
Paulette Clements pclement@cusd3.k12.il.us
The third grade decorated 150 bags.
Niles Elementary School
Niles, Illinois
Today, we delivered our 500 bags to Wilb Walker Grocery store. My special education class and the sixth grade class made it an inclusion project with both classes. It was also an excellent internet activity. We made the front page of the newspaper and hope to have pictures to send soon. What an excellent idea.
Bonnie Kinney and Kim McQueen (bkinney@mattoon.k12.il.us)
Hawthorne Elementary
Mattoon, Illinois

Illinois Earth Day Groceries Reports - 1997

Dear Earth Day Groceries Project organizers:
Here it is, FINALLY! This is our report from April 18, 1997. Our school decorated 480 paper grocery bags for Earth Day. Nineteen different classrooms participated on the event, including students from preschool to fifth grade. Our Kindergarten room colleted all the bags and sort them according to store (we had five community grocery stores helping us). Then, the kids counted from 1-10 MANY times working in cooperative groups.
We were all very happy to see so many bags all together. The children decided that they wanted to line them up to see if they could cover our main school hallway with them. After asking our principal, we predicted if we had enough bags to do that task, or if we thought we were going to be too short on bags. With 360 bags we made a huge line from our South door to our North door. Our assistant principal went by and said, when we were halfway to meeting our goal, "It looks as if you ARE going to make it!" Some of the older students count the bags as they were passing by after a drink of water or running errands for their teachers.
After Earth Day weekend, many of our Kindergarten students came back to school telling stories about the bags they saw inside the stores, of which students, from which teachers etc. Thank you for doing such a great project. We hope we can participate next year. Here is a link to our page with pictures (some are still to be added on):
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/4616/earthday.htm
Sincerely,
Nelida M. Frontera NelidaMFrontera@chicago.avenew.com
Jardin Mundial Kindergarten
C.M. Bardwell Elementary
Aurora, Illinois, USA
This E-Mail is on behalf of Ms. Michelle Williams who teaches at Midwest Central Primary School in Manito Illinois. Due to some technical difficulties at our school we do not have Internet Access from there at this time which explains why I am sending this from my home computer. If a reply is appropriate please feel free to reply to this location and I will be certain the message is delivered.
The Midwest Central Primary School decorated 700 bags for the Earth Day grocery project. This school is part of the Midwest Central Consolidated School District #191 with the Primary and Unit Offices located in Manito, Illinois.
The school may be contacted by E-Mail through me
Maury Crain
mrcrain@ibm.net
We decorated about 300 bags in conjunction with the Cub Foods store in our neighborhood. The management changed this year and I felt some resistance but I'll continue to pursue!
Roberta Franzen rfranzen@kiwi.dep.anl.gov
Dorn Primary
7840 W. 92nd St. Hickory Hills, Il 60457
Reba O. Steck School, in Aurora, Illinois participated in the project for our second year by decorating 669 bags and delivering them to Omni Food Store for distribution. Special credit goes to the class 3S for organizing the project, distributing and collecting bags throughout our building, and helping to deliver the bags to the store. See you next year!
Kirk Samples kirksamples@usa.net
Students at Gwendolyn Books Elementary School were happy to participate in the 1997 Earth Day Grocery Bag project. We are a K-5 school of 650 students. We did not involve the kindergarten in this project. 480 bags were decorated by first through fifth graders. The bags were used at an Omni food store on Earth Day. We have earned an "Earth Flag" by our participation in a recycling program and by having "No-Waste" lunches.
Joyce Schar, LMC Director joyce_schar@ipsd.org
Gwendolyn Brooks Elementary School
2700 Stonebridge Blvd., Aurora, IL 60504
This was the first time we participated in an "Earth Day Project"!! 66 - Fourth graders, 76 - Fifth graders and 17 P-K students decorated paper bags for our local grocery store. Students were very proud of their work!! We would like to do this again next year - but involve more classes. This was the first time my class participated in an "internet" project.
Thanks!!
Charlotte Liefer cliefer@randolph.k12.il.us
Red Bud Elementary
Red Bud, IL
Earth Day Greetings! I represent the Ecology Club at Northwest School in Lincoln, Illinois. (This is the only town to be named for Abe Lincoln before he became famous. Abe even christened our town with the juice of a watermelon.) Last month while surfing the WWW for Earth Day sites to share with the other teachers in my K-6 building, I found your site. The teachers liked adding the idea to our Earth Week, so I picked up some bags from The Kroger Co. and made them available to everyone. The kids had a lot of fun relaying their important environmental messages to the local shoppers. My class also enjoyed delivering the **227** decorated bags to Kroger located only two blocks away. Thanks for the GREAT PROJECT IDEA. We are looking forward to participating again next year while we are encouraging the people of our town to be aware of their environment.
T. Barcalow tbarcalo@abelink.com
Northwest Elementary School
Lincoln, IL
http://www.abelink.com/dist27/
This is the third year that the K-8 students of Immanuel Lutheran School in Palatine, IL participated in this project. Dominick's Foods was once again our willing partner in donating 500 bags and distributing them on Earth Day. The students decorated the bags the week before as one of the projects on "Grandparents Day" at the school. The conversations between the student and the grandparent as they decorate the bag help the child understand how the world has changed in the last 50 years and help the grandparent to understand how working together, the world can be changed for the better. We also learn that grandparents are good artists. This is such a great project!
Karen kbauder@flash.net
Immanuel Lutheran School
Palatine, IL
Thanks for your help in getting grocery bags ordered, etc. We are thrilled with the project and plan to participate again next year. We had 100% participation at all three of the elementary schools in Peotone Community Unit School District 207U: Green Garden, Peotone, and Wilton Center. Our total was 905 bags.
The URL for our project report is: http://www.peotone.will.k12.il.us/ch/EarthDay/
Be sure to check out the pogs hot link on the "Decorating the Bags" page! Thanks again for your help!
Sincerely,
Chris Halweg, FHA Adviser chalweg@mail.peotone.will.k12.il.us
Peotone High School
Peotone, IL
Humboldt School participated in the Earth Day Grocery Bag Project for the first time. It was coordinated by the Intermediate I and Grade 2 classes in conjunctin with an Earth Day celebration. We decorated 222 bags. Everyone in our K-4 building had a fun time! We want to thank you for the great idea and to Walker's Grocery Store, Mattoon, IL , for lending us the bags. Our students and teachers rushed out after school in hopes of getting an Earth Day bag.
Linda Pierce piercel@advant.com
Humboldt School
Humboldt, IL
This year our project grew to encompass the entire school. We picked up a bundle of bags from our local Jewel/Osco store. (We didn't know that was 500 bags!) So every student did a bag, or more, and we finished!! We took the bags to the store and they put up a display of a few bags, and some posters we made for Earth Day. Some of us went to the store on that day to get groceries to make sure they were using the bags--and they were!! It was a really fun experience and the whole school was talking about the good ways to help our earth. Thanks again for starting this great idea a few years ago. We have a better time each year we do the project. Sorry we don't have pictures to send you!
Mrs. Coleman, and 5th grade class at Thomas Jefferson School in Joliet, IL
Ruth Coleman RuthC423@aol.com
Joliet, IL USA
http://web.isbe.state.il.us/rcoleman
Fourth and fifth grade students at Centennial School,Plano,IL, decorated 194 grocery bags to be distributed to shoppers at Eagle Discount Foods, in Plano, on Earth Day. Students included messsages to shoppers on how they can help the earth.
Reporter,
Lane S., Fifth grade spark@aquila.com
This is the second year that Washington School has participated in the Earth Day Groceries Project. This is a fun easy project for the students, and it can involve the entire school. We decorated 550 grocery bags and delivered them to Food Shop, the local grocery store, to be used during the week. What an easy way to remind us to take care of our earth. A couple of schools in the area have contacted us about participating, so this will be a project that will continue to grow. Thank you for a great idea.
Patricia Koontz pkoontz@midwest.net
Washington School
Johnston City, Illinois
I heard about the Earth Day Grocery Bag Project from a friend who e-mailed you- Sally Nelson. Then I read about it on your school webpage. Our fifth graders decorated 50 bags today and delivered them to our local Galva Food Pride store. Each bag included a message to educate our citizens about the importance of conserving our natural resources. The store will use them tomorrow for Earth Day. Our students enjoyed helping. Thank you for the information.
Sue Schulz sschulz@bhsroe.k12.il.us
Galva Elementary School
Galva, IL
Our Pre-K thru grade 5 building located just 30 miles south of Chicago decorated 450 bags.
Mary Boam mboam@kiwi.dep.anl.gov
Wagoner Elementary
Sauk Village, IL
Manteno Elementary first graders worked with Manteno Foods to join all the other school children by way of the internet to increase environmental awareness of Earth Day 1997 by decorating 140 grocery bags. The boys and girls had fun creating their designs and sharing their ideas. The people of our community will certainly enjoy getting the beautiful bags. Manteno, IL is a community of about 5,000 about 40 miles south of Chicago. We hope to join in the Earth Day Grocery Project for years to come.
Barbara Wenzel KBW0708@aol.com
Manteno Elementary
Manteno, IL
I just happened to be cruising the net and saw this grocery project!! I went to our local Thompson's Food Basket and they were delighted to help us with our project. We had grades 1-3 decorate the bags, about 125 decorated bags in all. We hope to do this again next year.Thanks!
Sue Smith ssmith@cyberdesic.com
Mapleton Elementary
Mapleton, Il
The 1st-6th grade regular education and special education students at Fieldcrest School in Oak Forest, IL decorated 315 bags for the Earth Day Groceries Project. Our bags were donated by Eagle Food Store in Country Club Hills, IL. This was our first year participating in the project, and we loved it! Many teachers commented on the enthusiam and excitement of the children. We will definitely be participating again next year!!!
Linda Perez Lindita@msn.com
2nd Grade Teacher
Fieldcrest School
Oak Forest, IL
As I was perusing the Internet for Earth Day information, I read about your Earth Day Grocery Bag Project and thought it was a super idea! I shared the information with my principal and we turned it into a school-wide activity. Our school, Ridge Elementary located in Oak Forest, IL, decorated 500 bags which will be distributed by our local Jewel-Osco. All students in kindergarten-grade 5 enjoyed helping to "spread the word" about Earth Day. Thanks for sharing your very worthwhile idea!
P.S. Please send reports from all participating schools.
Linda Metz levans@kiwi.dep.anl.gov, Second Grade Teacher
Ridge Elementary School
5151 W. 149th St.
Oak Forest, IL 60452
We are a small school of 143 students. We really had alot of fun decorating 151 bags for Eagle Grocery Store in Galesburg, IL 61401. The Register-Mail Newspaper came and took pictures for the paper. I also took pictures and will send them to you, when I get them back. This is a neat project to go along with our community recycling program which we started here at our school. We collect approximately 1 ton of recycables a month. We are east of the Mississippi River and located between Peoria and the Quad Cities. Please e-mail us your results as you get them.
Thank you, Sally Nelson
Raymond Marquith School marquith@galesburg.net
Today my class finished the final process in the Earth Day Bag Project. Let me tell you how it turned out. We are from Walker's Grove Elementary School in Plainfield, Illinois.

We first found out about the project from reading about it in the KIDS F.A.C.E. newspaper that we receive from Wal-Mart. Being quite the conservationist that we are in our 4th grade class, we were eager to give this project our best. Excitement was spreading through the classroom and eventually out into the hall ways. Before long, the four other 4th grades wer e wanting to join in on the fun. But it didn't stop there....the five 5th grade classes wanted to participate as well. We were up to 300 students and 300 bags to contribute to the project.

We contacted the local family owned grocery store in Plainfield, Gehrke's. They donated a bale of paper grocery bags for us to display our Earth Day messages on. We decided to turn the project into an overall learning experience as well. We added it into an enviormental awareness theme for our curriculum and have made it into a three week plan. We have also found ways to integrate it into the science ocean unit we are covering.

Once the bags were completed, we collected them from each class. We contacted the three area newspapers, The Enterprise, The Sun and The Herald News, to explain to them the purpose of our project and to share the Earth Day awareness throughout our community. We also attached a small note and self-addressed envelope to the inside rim of some of our bags. This note included the illustrator's name and a request to return the envelope with a short note of where our bag ended up and any comments on the project.

Our final part was returning the bags. Students had volunteered to meet me after school at Gehrke's to return the bags to the store manager, Brian Gehrke. The newspapers were there to take pictures and interview students about the project. To see the excitement and pride in their eyes was great. They were quite proud of their work and the messages they were sending.

The grocery store will begin distributing the bags on Saturday at 10:00 am. We were notified by the newpapers that they plan on being there to take a picture of our first bag to leave the store and to interview its recipient. We have been asked to return there as well.

Thank you so much for letting us participate in this project. We loved it. Our only regret is that we didn't take pictures of some of the fine art work on the bags. We would have loved to passed some of our artistic abilities along. We can't wait to hear the results elsewhere. This has given us the extra opportunity to use the internet in a class related project as well. Please keep us posted !!

Special thanks to the other teachers who participated:
Mrs. Stephens, Miss O'Brien, Miss Grissom, Miss Meagher, 4th grade
Mr. Barlog, Mrs. Nelson, Mrs. Douin, Miss Farkas, Mrs. Beck, 5th grade
and most of all THE STUDENTS!!
Chris Hoop Choop1213@aol.com
Walker's Grove Elementary School
Plainfield, IL

I learned about the grocery bag, Earth Day, project on the internet. It sounded like fun! About 500 students here at Reed School,14939 W. 143rd, Lockport, IL, 60441, will be decorating bags this year. Dominicks on Bell Road in Homer Township, right down the road from us, is giving us the bags. We're really excited that the bags will be given out during Earth Week. In that way we feel that we are sharing our love of, and good ideas for caring for the earth with lots of people.
We are decorating 525 bags here. My class is decorating as we speak. They're really doing a nice job, of course! I'll take the bags back to Dominicks next week so they can be used all of Earth Week.
We had to go out and replant tulip bulbs today that some other students pulled out of the ground. My kids and I were really upset since we spent a lot of time planting them(100) in the fall. They're just starting to come up. Hope we saved them by replanting.
Thanks for writing back. I read your letter to the class. They thought it was great that you would take the time to write us.
Susan Tanty stanty@lrw.will.k12.il.us
Reed School
Lockport, IL
Francis Parker is K-12 independent school located in Chicago. Every year the lower school (JK-5) celebrates Earth day. This year each grade is involed in a special project to celebrate the earth and develop environmental awareness. On Friday, April 25, we will celebrate Earth Day and share our projects with the entire school. Thanks to your idea, the lower school has also decorated 400 grocery bags to be handed out at a local grocery store the week of April 22. Happy Earth Day!:)
Lesley Maurer lmaurer@iquest.net
Chicago,Il.
Francis W. Parker School

Illinois Earth Day Groceries Reports - 1996

We were taking a class on how to use the internet and an assignment was to pull something from the net. We wanted something on Earth Day and you provided it! Thanks! We made 600 bags for Cub Foods. We are a primary center EC,K,PT and 1.

We are Dorn School, 7840 W.92nd St.,Hickory Hills, IL 60457.
Roberta Franzen
Dorn Primary Center
rfranzen@kiwi.dep.anl.gov

We wanted you to know that we decorated 400 bags as oart of Earth Eco Month. Our students really enjoyed the project.

Arlene Ament
Computer Resource Teacher
Field Middle School
3131 Techny Road
Northbrook, Illinois 60062
(847)272-6884
amenta@field1.dist31.k12.il.us

Our school participated in the Earth Day Project. LaGrange Highlands Elementary in LaGrange, IL. About 500 bags were decorated in grades K-5 and distributed to Dominick's Food Store. The children loved the project and our school was featured in the newspaper. Thanks again.

Janette M. Dayton, Teacher
dayton@icebox.ncook.k12.il.us
LaGrange Highlands Dist#106
1750 Plainfield Road
LaGrange, IL 60525

I almost forgot to send you a thank you for letting us participate in the earth day project. I Almost all of our school of 213 participated, it was during our testing season so most of the teachers were ready for a break for their students. Grades 3-8 participated. We are a small rural school just west of Joliet, IL. We got the bags from our local grocery store. Most of the bags turned out wonderful. We only had to censor one bag. This student told the people that if they didn't recycle then they would die. Since there are a lot of old people who shop at this store who may not have a sense of humor we kept the bag. We all had fun.

Thank you
Kristin
Kermmie198@aol.com

Our school decorated bags for the Bradford Grocery Store. We decorated 120 bags, with grades pre-K through 4 participating. It was great.

Bradford CUSD #1, Bradford, IL
Peggy Burton
bradcusd@cyberdesic.com

The students of Immanuel Lutheran School in Palatine, Illinois decorated 500 grocery bags which were donated by Dominick's Grocery Store in Palatine. On Wed., April 17th we had Grandparent's Day and the grandparents helped the students decorate the bags. The conversations about the environment and the exchanges on how to take care of our earth were priceless. It was also great to have the generations working together on a project that each valued as important.

Karen Bauder
kbauder@isbe.state.il.us

The students and staff of Reba O. Steck were glad to be a part of Earth Day Groceries this year. In cooperation with Omni Food Store in Aurora, our kindergarten through fifth grade students were able to decorate 608 bags with environmental designs and slogans. Thanks to the organizers for putting together such a worthwhile activity. We would love to have a copy of the final report for our kids to see. Thanks again, Reba O. Steck School

Aurora, Illinois
Reba O. Steck Elementary
Kirk Samples
staff85@mcs.com

We decorated 415 bags for the Jewel grocery store in Glendale Hts., IL

Mary Ellen Kelly
St. Matthew School
mekelly@starnetinc.com

We had fun making the Earth Day bags for the customers at our local Jewel-Osco Food and Drug store. Eight classes decorated 162 bags. We're from Thomas Paine El. School in Urbana, IL, home of the University of Illinois. (Did you know that we are only one of two schools in USA to be named after Thomas Paine? Do you know who Thomas Paine was?)
Roderick Wwoodson Jr., Michael Cooper, Jessi Mcdade, Brandon Randle Wisdom

Pam Shallenberger
Thomas Paine Elementary
Urbana, IL
shallepa@cmi.k12.il.us

At Washington School, in Bloomington, Illinois, students decorated Schnuck's grocery bags with environmental slogans and pictures of the Earth to remind customers to recycle, not to pollute, and to take care of the Earth. The purpose of this project is to involve the students and their community in Earth Day (week) activities.
Another "bag" project for ecology was decorating bags for The EarthKeepers store, in Normal, Illinois, a store that specializes in ecological merchandise. The store will display some of the bags and use the remainder for customers' purchases. The bags will be used during Earth Week and after - until they are gone.
Recycling project by the students in Mrs. Krueger's fourth grade class: the students collected and recycled old telephone books in order to save trees and landfill space.

Mrs. Krueger's Fourth Grade Class
Washington Elementary School
Bloomington, Illinois 61701
LCKrueger@aol.com

Thanks again for your leadership in suggesting the Grocery Bag project. We did not have time to make as many this year, but between two classes here at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, in Joliet, Illinois, we made 60 bags. We have been studying about the environment, and how to keep America beautiful, and the bag project was a good way to express our ideas about that. One of our mothers works at the local Jewel Food Store, and picked up the bags and took them back for us. Thanks to Mrs. Kelly. :-)

Thank you.
Mrs. Coleman, 4th grade, and Mrs. Brooks, 3rd grade
rcoleman@isbe.state.il.us

Happy Earth Day!!! We managed to decorate 182 grocery bags!! The manager called the health dept. and found that it would be no problem! Like you said, it helps to sometimes deal with a different manager! The one I dealt with was more than kind and helpful.
Many thanks for your encouragement and advice on this fun project!!

Sincerely,
Scott Davis and 3rd Graders
davissc@cmi.k12.il.us

The "bag count" for Washington School in Johnston City, Illinois is 575. Our students really enjoyed the project and produced some interesting bags. We would like to receive an e-mail report at our school, if possible. The address is wash@midwest.net. Thank you for a neat idea!

Patricia Koontz, 8th grade teacher
Washington Middle School
Johnston City, Illinois
pkoontz@midwest.net

Illinois Earth Day Groceries Reports - 1995

Count us in!
Glen Oak Primary School Peoria,IL USA. 250 bags to the Kroger on Wisconsin Avenue. The third and fourth graders enjoyed making the bags.
Thanks Janet Quintiliani
JCBQ@aol.com
We were away on Easter Vacation on Earth Day, but I wanted to tell you what we did before vacation to prepare and participate.

One of the mothers from my room (5th grade) who is very "into" recycling came to our room and gave a very informative talk about how to and what to recycle in Joliet, IL. Then she brought us grocery bags to decorate for a local store, and returned them for use on April 22. The students really enjoyed the project. We did about 90 bags.

Thank you for suggesting we do this, because we probably wouldn't have otherwise. Hope you do it again next year. (We will try to!)

Ruth Coleman, 5th grade at Thomas Jefferson Elementary, Joliet, IL
rcoleman@isbe.state.il.us

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+                Ruth Coleman, 5th Grade Teacher                 +
+             Thomas Jefferson School, Joliet, IL  USA           +
+-All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today-+
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Immanuel Lutheran School in Palatine, IL had 390 k-8 students each decorate a bag donated by Dominick's grocery in Palatine, Il. A local newspaper wrote a story about the project. Older students were buddies to kindergarten students to teach them about Earth Day and help them write slogans on their bags and give them suggestions on how to decorate it. Thanks for coordinating a project that brought awareness and fun together.

kbauder@isbe.state.il.us

Because I work in the environmental field, the PTA at my daughter's school asked me for suggestions about earth day activities. I passed along your idea and heard from a reliable source that it was a huge success! So I'd like to report that Madison Elementary School in Wheaton, Illinois decorated 500 grocery bags, which were returned to the local Dominicks for distribution. About 40 bags were also hung at the entrance to the store - it made for an impressive earth day display. Congratulations on your great idea for a doable, high impact activity and for using the Internet to spread the word.

Jim Butler
jpbutler@mcs.net
Mark, Our school participated--contributing 200 decorated bags to our local IGA store. It was a great project for our kids--they loved it! We'd love to hear about other schools' projects, as well. TIA! Ruth

D. Ruth Esry, Principal
Pleasant Acres Elementary School
Rantoul, IL  61866
217-893-4141
"The School with the Future Inside!"
d-esry@icebox.ncook.k12.il.us

WWW.EARTHDAYBAGS.ORG