Earth Day Groceries, 1999 Reports

This is Part 6, with reports from schools 501 -600.
Updated April 29,1999.

Use the Guestbook or email to send in your reports. (Remember to include your school name, location, and number of bags decorated) The most recent reports are listed at the top of this page.

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.
Tammie Kickirillo
June Thompson Elementary
Carrollton, Texas
Bags decorated: 457
Comments: We had so much fun with this project. Thank you so much for thinking of it. We contacted the local Albertson's (store number 4113 at Frankford and Josey in Carrollton). They donated tje bags and the kids decorated them. We also had the 5th grade students decorate posters that the store put all around to decorate. Thanks again for the idea!
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.
Megan Kicklighter
Port Wentworth Elementary School
Savannah, GA
Bags decorated: 208
Comments: 208 bags submitted to Kroger in Garden City, GA. The students did a beautiful job and were so proud of the end result.
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.
Lesa Petrovich
La Mesa Junior High
Santa Clarita, Ca
Bags decorated: 300
Comments: Great project even for the older kids.
Faith Toole
Duncan Chapel Elementary School
Greenville,SC USA
Bags decorated: 778
Comments: Our school decorated 775 bags for our local grocery store, Publix.
Janet Kragen
Suquamish Elementary
Suquamish, WA, USA
Bags decorated: 200 so far
Comments: Happy Earth Day from Puget Sound! I picked up a 500 bag bundle from Central Market in Pouslbo, and we spent time in class working on them. We took 200 decorated bags back to the store yesterday. Other teachers in the school are doing more bags today and taking them to the store this afternoon. We are in the middle of studying the 70's, so this activity was timely, the first Earth Day being in 1970!
Mrs. Rita
Normandy school
Centerville, Ohio
Bags decorated: 23
Comments: It was a fun project.
Karen Sherve
Richmond School (K - 8)
Susanville, California 96130
Bags decorated: 300
Comments: We read about your project in Current Health 1, March 1999. Student Council officers thought it would be a project they would like to coordinate. We have about 200 students in our school and all grades are participating. Susanville Supermarket is our cooperating grocery store. Thank you for sharing your idea!
Andrea Glezman
Boyne Falls School
Bags decorated: 16
Kristen Arbaugh
Ann Arbor Hebrew Day school
Ann Arbor,MI,USA
Bags decorated: 106
Mrs. Frances Walker/ 3rd grade teacher - Ms. Rhonda Mahaffey/Aide
Holly Harshman Elementary
Mena, AR
Bags decorated: 260
Comments: We have very much enjoyed this Earth Day Project! Not only did Mrs. Walker's third grade participate, she involved fourth grade and fifth grade classes. We would like to mention Jame's Food Center for thier donation of grocery bags. They were very pleased with the bags delivered to them from our children here at HHES. Thanks to this web site for leading us to such a fun and exciting project for Earth Day!
Kathleen Sullivan
Enders Road Elementary School
Manlius, New York (just outside of Syracuse, New York) USA
Bags decorated: 600
Comments: The children in grades K-4 at our school absolutely adored decorating the bags and returning them to the local P&C grocery store here in Manlius! A camera crew from the local news station filmed the children decorating their bags and they also filmed my second graders during their computer class while they sent e-mail to Senator Nelson via an internet site provided by The Wilderness Society. This project has been a huge success. We like to call the decorated bags "Smart art!" Thank you for providing us with the chance to participate!
E. Thomas
Pinecrest Elementary
Lithia FL
Bags decorated: 680
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.
Michelle Robinson
Miller Education Center
Hillsboro, Oregon
Bags decorated: 244
Comments: We are an alternative public school that serves at-risk kids in the Hillsboro school district. The High School program has 50 students who are in the 9th-12th grades. The 7th-8th grade program has 30 students. We worked on the bags for about 6hours total and completed 244 bags.
This was one of two projects we did to celebrate Earth Day and the students were very invested in the project. They felt very strongly about the need to create community awareness. Thanks for all the hard work. Keep on healing yourselves and our Mother.
Kimberly Miles
Hillcrest Elementary, Jonesboro, Arkansas
Jonesboro, Ar
Bags decorated: 85
Comments: My fourth grade students thouroughly enjoyed decorating the grocery bags for Earth Day. In class, we read a story and read from the flyer in the Weekly Reader. Following the reading activities we colored our grocery bags. I am sure we will have several parents shopping at the local Kroger store tonight.
I teach 4 classes of fourth grade reading at Hillcrest Elementary in Jonesboro, Arkansas. We use our Weekly Readers every week. Thank you for your support in educating today children.
Mr Rotenberg
P.S.75K
Bags decorated: 50
Comments: The kids had a great time and the manager was very cooperative. It was a great lesson. I have not gotten a response from the store manager yet. Will be happy to give you a followup
Tina Ferrara
Bowne-Munro Elementary School
East Brunswick, New Jersey
Bags decorated: 359
Comments: The students of our school had a great time decorating the grocery bags from the local supermarket, an are really excited about having thier families and friends visiting the store to get a bag to use over and over again! We would love to hear from someone, to know that you received this email, and to update us on the total number of bags that were done nation wide! Thank You, and we look forward to participating again next year!
Ruth Klida
Wiley Elementary School
Utica, Michigan
Bags decorated: 480
Comments: We are students at Wiley Elementary, located in Utica, Michigan. Our school has students in Kindergarten through Sixth Grade. Our school made 480 bags and had 23 classes participate! It was fun to make these Earth Day bags. The Kroger manager named Brian donated the bags to our school! Happy Earth Day - 1999
Julie LaFleur
James Monroe Elementary
Bermuda Dunes, California
Bags decorated: 403
Comments: Our students had a great time decorating the grocery bags! We discussed ways to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. In honor of Earth Day, our school is planting a tree and dedicating it to the memory of Jessica Rae. Special thanks to her mother, Pam Rae (Noonyard supervisor) and her father, Tom Rae, manager of our local Ralphs Supermarket, for providing the grocery bags.
The 8th Grade Expansion Team of Creekside Middle School, Zeeland, Michigan, spread the word about Earth Day by decorating 54 bags. The bags were distributed at our local D&W grocery store. Happy Earth Day from the Expansion Team!
Kip Holland-Anderson
Chris Demers
Concord School District
Concord, NH 03301
Bags decorated: 498
Comments: This is a fabulous program. Next year we hope to get every one of the approx. 2000 elementary students to participate. Good luck breaking last year's record!!! See you next year!!!
Mrs. Gerwe
McLeod School
McLeod, Montana 59052
Bags decorated: 68
Comments: We are a two-room, rural school. We have 16 kids in all. The local IGA is using our bags.
Pat Headley
Bess Johnson Elkhorn Public Library
Elkhorn, NE 68022
Bags decorated: 67
Comments: Young patrons visited the public library for two days after school. We talked about Earth Day and what we can do for the environment personally.We did some experiments, walked a pretend nature trail looking for out of place items, looked at books the library owns, and decorated bags for the local grocer. Fifty children participated and we appreciate the opportunity to share information about our activities with all the other Bags Project participants. This has been fun and educational--a winning combination for us and for the Earth.
This was a great project. Wilton Manors Elementary School Media Center invited participants to come to Media Center and decorate Earth Day April 22nd bags for our Partner in Excelllence- Publix. It was a great first time success. 100 bags were decorated and promises for much more next day. I think this was a great idea and fun for all.
C. Stewart Stafford
Bowley Elementary School
Fort Bragg
Bags decorated: 500+
Comments: Happy Earth Day! Our 500+ PreSchool through 4th grade students decorated over 500 grocery bags which are being distributed by the Main Commissary today on the base. We have just had an Earth Day parade with students' work plus the majority of staff members are wearing Celebrate Earth Day with our school imprinted on the tee-shirt. Many classroom activities have been centered around the Earth Day theme for the past few weeks. Thanks for all you are doing with this wonderful project.
Richard Hunt
Grassy Creek Elementary School
Indianapolis, Indiana
Bags decorated: 1500
Comments: This program is a great idea! Our entire school, over 600 students, were involved in the decoration of just over 1500 bags! We thank our community groceries Kroger, Marsh, and O'Malia Food Markets for their participation and effort to make this project a success. They each contributed 500 bags for this project.
I'm Sue Walls, the Environmental Community Relations Specialist from Dover AFB, DE. I was excited to read about Earth Day Groceries Project on the Internet. I figured I'd give it a try this year with the children from the Child Development Center on base (I chose the age 2 - 5 category). I contacted the commissary officer on base (to get the bags) and also coordinated the effort with the assistant director from the CDC. Both officials were happy to help and participate with the recycling awareness effort.
I personally purchased the washable water color markers I asked the children to use. (I had read an article stating that markers were more environmentally friendly vs. crayons) I took the brown bags and wrote an Earth Day message on each one. Some stated "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" while others had a "Save Our Planet" slogan on them. The majority had a big circle with the words Earth Day '99 below.
My total count was 76 bags!! I featured a story on the bag project in an Earth Day insert for our base paper on 16 April. It was titled "Earth Day Groceries Project shows our little ones care about the big picture." It was accompanied by a photo I took of an adorable 2-year old girl putting her artistic and imaginative efforts to work on a brown grocery bag. I brought the decorated bags to the commissary today and took some photos of the commissary workers using the "works of art" to bag the patrons groceries. If you'd like, I can send you print photos or some of the digital images I took of Dover AFB's participation in the Earth Day Groceries Project. Please return an e-mail to me, letting me know which (if any) you'd like to have. I'd like to add some of the efforts from Dover AFB to your collection.
Lastly, I wanted to let you know what a great idea you had several years ago and am glad you got the program on the Internet to share with others. Thanks a bunch!! Looking forward to hearing from you!!
Susan E. Walls
436 AW/PA
201 Eagle Way
Dover AFB, DE 19902
Allison T. Hackett
Windsor Hills Magnet
Los Angeles
Bags decorated: 38
Comments: My second grade class really enjoyed decorating the bags for earth day. They were excited about doing something to help the earth. Some of them, are going to try to get their parents to shop at Ralphs on earth day so that they can witness their bags being used by other customers.
Stephen Ransom
Burris Laboratory School/Ball State Universith
Muncie, IN
Bags decorated: 171
Comments: We had a great time decorating these bags and discussing relevant Earth Day issues. The children were very excited and really felt that they were doing an important part of informing the public about their responsibility to the earth. The president of our student council and I delivered the bags to the manager at Ross grocery store to be used today, Earth Day. We will certainly do this again next year!
This was our first year to participate in your project. Our school is N.E. Miles Jewish Day School - 4000 Montclair Road - Birmingham, Alabama 35213. We have 110 students, and we decorated 190 bags. Our "Upper School" was in charge of organizing the project, and everyone really seemed to enjoy it! We'll try to do even more next year! Thanks,
Annette Troxell (I teach 6th, 7th & 8th grade science.)
Rymond Lttle
Erma Siegel Elementary
Mrfreesboro, Tennessee
Bags decorated: 223
Comments: thanks for this great opportunity. we have representatives from all grade levels participate. we look forward to involving our entire school next year. Bi-Lo generously provided us with the bags. thanks again for this great effort=:))
earth day grocery bags. 80 bags. Ligonier Public Library in Ligonier, IN. Bags from Freed's IGA 1350 Lincolnway S; Owen's Supermarket 903 Lincolnway S. Ligonier Public Library 300 S Main. email: jjmarker@ ligtel.com
Jennifer Oldham
Las Palmas Elementary (Edgewood ISD)
San Antonio, Texas
Bags decorated: 245
Comments: As a culmination of our annual Earth Day Rally, the winners of the "Earth Day Grocery Bag Decorating Contest" were announced. All of the bags were then collected and taken to the local HEB grocery store (#16) who donated the grocery bags.
Mrs. Orona
Carden Conejo School
Westlake Village, California
Bags decorated: 42
Comments: Hooray for Earth Day! We had a wonderful time decorating bags for Earth Day. What a great idea! This project brought up many intersesting topics and it heightened my students awareness of the community around them. I cannot wait to do this again next year! Hip Hip Hooray for Recycling!!!
Mrs. Lattanzio's Class
Kingston School
Cherry Hill, New Jersey
Bags decorated: 17
Comments: Happy Earth Day! This was a great project. We had a lot of fun. We enjoyed participating and we are proud of our illustrations and all of the other schools' hard work. Most important, we learned ways to keep our Earth clean!
Tammy Ruehrwein
Lloyd Mann Primary in Loveland City Schools
Loveland, Ohio
Bags decorated: 750
Comments: This was a GREAT idea! Our kindergarteners and first graders were very excited about decorting the grocery bags. Each of the 750 students in our building decorated the grocery bags for our local Loveland Kroger Store. For our building we wanted the bags to carry the environmental message "Don't Litter". Students used the theme to help them decorate the bags for distribution. We also helped raise environmental awareness through our local paper and WCPO News. Both presented Lloyd Mann's participation in the Earth Day Groceries Project. We are pleased and proud to be a part of this effort that is growing rapidly. Thanks for the idea and your individual efforts to make this internet project a HUGE success. Pictures of some of the bags will follow.
Mrs. Silvestri/Mrs. McComb
Mary Ethel Costello School
Gloucester City, NJ, USA
Bags decorated: 21
Comments: We enjoyed this project very much. This project reminded us of the importance of saving the earth.
Barbara Easton
Temple Beth El Child Development Center
Riverside, California
Bags decorated: 225
Comments: Great idea for a preschool and Kindergarten. Most activities in our area are for older children! Everyone could be successful! Thank you!
Barbara and the 147 children at Temple Beth El CDC!
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".
Cynthia Sumpter
Robert L. Bland Middle School
Weston, WV 26452
Bags decorated: 106
Comments: What a fun day! Our student teacher, Miss Mathess, took the project idea and had a great time. The students decorated the grocery bags with beautiful pictures of the earth and nature. One earth wore a birthday hat, another bag had a trash can picking up its own litter. The students were so excited that someone else would be taking home their art work. We will be back next year.
Steve Sherman
Washington Park School
Totowa, New Jersey
Bags decorated: 200
Comments: This was our first year doing this Earth DAY grocery bag project. Next year we are planning to have grades 4,3 and 2 decorate the bags. Shop Rite in Little Falls NJ was very cooperative and helped make our project a success.
Trudy Williams
Royal Charles School
St. Hubert, Quebec, Canada
Bags decorated: 365
Comments: Once again the staff and students at Royal Charles School in St. Hubert, Quebec have had a wonderful time participating in "The Earth Day Groceries Project".Our French Immersion School on the "South Shore" of Montreal decorated 365 grocery bags with French and English environmental messages. Happy Earth Day!
Steve Mitchell
East Middle School
Farmington Hills, Michigan USA
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: For the second year in a row, the sixth grade science students at East Middle School decorated 500 bags for distribution by our local Kroger store. We had many positive comments and thanks for raising the community's awareness level regarding Earth Day(especially among the Kroger staff!)and preserving our environment. See you next year for Earth Day 2000!
Steve Woodwick
Brownsdale Elementary
Brownsdale, MN
Bags decorated: 98
Comments: Every year for the last 18 years our school has participated in Earth Day activities. We have planted trees,cleaned up roadside ditches,developed an eight acre nature center, and performed skits and musical presentations . We are a small school K-5, with about 120 students.
Karen Levy
Adams Elementary
Corvallis, OR
Bags decorated: 300
Comments: Everyone from our kindergarteners to our 5th gaders loved decorating the bags. We worked with Safeway, who seemed excited about the project. The only problem is that their bags have pretty dark red designs on them. We will definitely make this a tradition!
Pam Cowley
Broad River Elementary School
Beaufort, SC 29902
Bags decorated: 150
Comments: My students were very excited. We did a whole Earth Day Unit. They learned the importance of recycling and expressed that knowledge when they decorated their bags. We will do this activity again. Thank you!
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.
Marilyn Ammons
Rockwell Elementary
Spanish Fort, Alabama
Bags decorated: 494
Comments: We enjoyed this project. We are and elementary school K-5 with 500 students.
We are John P. Freeman Optional School, 5250 Tulane Road, Memphis, TN, 38125, grades 1-8. We participated in the grocery bag project in conjunction with our Earth Day Activities (releasing butterflies, and the installation of our butterfly garden). Mr. James Giles, Manager of Mega Market, Whitehaven Branch, Memphis, TN, furnished 600 paper bags to our school. On Earth Day, 4/22, we returned these bags to Mega Market and they used them to sack customer's groceries on that designated day. We advised our parents to ask for the bags when they shop Mega Market. The students and faculty really enjoyed decorating the bags. We look forward to doing this again next year.
Frankye Robb
cc: Mr. Giles, Mega Market
Julie Pieczko
Terry MIll Elementary School
Atlanta, Georgia
Bags decorated: 1000
Comments: This is our first year participating in this wonderful project. Every child in grades PreK-Six decorated a bag for Earth Day 1999. We would like to thank Mr. Novotny and the entire staff at the Kroger on Moreland Avenue for donating 1000 bags! We can't wait to see our bags in use on Earth Day!
Ms. Caroline Theye
Summit Hall ES
Gaithersburg, MD USA
Bags decorated: 90
Comments: Our third graders participated in this years Earth Day Groceries. We had a fun time making these. We submitted our bags to Weis Supermarket, located in Gaithersburg, MD. Next year we hope to include more grades! Thanks for the wonderful Earth Day activity.
Donna Eaton
Waterford Elementary
Waterford, Pennsylvania, USA
Bags decorated: 224
Sandra Rudolph
Skyline Elem. School
Cape Coral, FL
Bags decorated: 400 more
Comments: Originally we registered that Skyline was decorating 500 bags.....that has now been updated to 900 bags. Thought you'd like to change your data.
Angela Hall
Calloway-Smith Middle School
Mobile, AL
Bags decorated: 450
Comments: This is the first year students at Calloway-Smith Middle School participated in the gracery bag project. What a great activity! Ms. Dotson, 6th grade Reading teacher and I extended this activity to include reading literature about recycling and earth day. I used the graphs for mathematics. The sixth-graders decorated 450 bags that will be distributed at Delchamps #27 in Mobile. We would like to thank the Manager and Staff at Delchamps for their support in this par tnership! Our children and the community have been enriched by our participation and efforts towards creating awareness - Recycle, Reuse, Reduce--Earth Day 1999!
Marlene Taylor
Rainbow Elementary
Winter Springs, FL
Bags decorated: 185
Comments: Publix Grocery Store supported our program and made sure we had enough bags for all our fifth grade students. Next year we hope to involve more classes in our school.
Mrs.Keller
Millville Elementary School
Millville PA USA
Bags decorated: 20
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.
Joanne Kwan
Estelle and Alfonso's Preschool
Fishkill,New York
Bags decorated: 60
Comments: Although we are a small school of only 60 students, the idea of this project really appealed to us. With the cooperation of our local supermarket, our students worked hard to decorate the bags with Earth Day messages and pictures. The idea of their bags being given out to shoppers also delighted the children. This project also tied in nicely with our theme of recycling and what Earth Day is about. We were more than happy to be able to participate and hope to do it again next year!
Deanna Antonio
Ridge Elementary School
Ridge, Maryland 20680
Bags decorated: 300
Comments: What a great idea! The amount of reading sparked by this project and the increased environmental awareness among the students and community was gratifying. We will likely participate next year.
The students at Daniels Farm Elementary School in Trumbull, Ct have all decorated grocery bags to be distributed at our local grocery store on April 22. This is the second year that our school has participated in this project and the students, teachers, and community love it. It really makes us all aware of our earth and how we should take care of it. The project was done in the media center under the direction of Evelyn Montagnino. Fun was had by all. A total of 582 students participated in this project. Thanks
Daniels Farm Elementary
Mitzi Brooks
Bonlee Elementary School
Bonlee, NC
Bags decorated: 150
Western Row Elementary School
Mason, Ohio
4th Grade Teacher -- Steve Golembiewski
# of bags decorated -- 500
WESTERN ROW ELEMENTARY students decorated 500 grocery bags for the Earth Day Groceries Project!! With the help of Thriftway Grocery, our classes were able to remind the community of Mason, Ohio, about the importance of taking care of OUR earth. There were some very clever designs and everyone was excited to be involved in this project. I'd like to thank Thriftway Grocery for donating the grocery bags and all the teachers that helped us reach 500 bags. Thanks for the GREAT Earth Day idea!!
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!
Evelyn Mayer
Jones Fork Elementary
Mousie, Ky--U.S.
Bags decorated: 20
Andy Griggs
Grape Street Elementary School
Bags decorated: 126
Comments: WE had students in all of our 4th grade classes and some of our fifth graders participate---the idea was a great kickoff and too for motivating the students to learn a bit about our environment. Thanks
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.
The 7th and 8th graders at South Amboy Middle/High School in South Amboy, NJ decorated 200 grocery bags donated from Foodtown in South Amboy. They had a great time!!! Thanks for the idea!
Mrs. Cindy Falco
Science Teacher
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
We participated in the Earth Day Groceries Project. The chemistry and art classes did 150 paper bags for the local Kroger Store.
Nancy Brim
Lakeside High School
Atlanta, Georgia
Laura Gideon
Andasol Avenue School
Northridge, Calif. 91325
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: As chairperson of Earth Day, I had each student decorate a bag. From the money we collected, we are buying acres of the rain forest to be saved!
Jamie
Kilgore Intermediate School
Kilgore,TX, USA
Bags decorated: 100
Comments: Mrs.Martin's 5th grade class decorated 100 bags that were donated by the local Brookshire's and Winn Dixie grocery stores. The students wrote poems about Earth Day and put them on one side of the sack and they drew a picture or put a slogan on the other side of the sack. These students worked hard and did a great job.
Mrs. Martha (Hynes) Gates
Parkdale Elementary School
Waco, Texas/USA
Bags decorated: 130
Comments: These bags were decorated by the environmentally concerned 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students at Parkdale Elem. We would like to thank Albertson's and the City of Waco Solid Waste Services personnel for enabling us to participate.
Randerson Ridge Elementary School in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada participated in the Groceries Project for the first time. 243 wonderfully decorated bags were returned to one of our local grocery stores.
Diane McGonigle
Mrs. Allen
Aliso Elementary School
Lake Forest, CA, USA
Bags decorated: 22
Comments: My students loved decorating the "Earth Day bags", and the local Ralphs grocery store was thrilled to receive them.
Maribel Garcia
Los Obispos Middle School
Laredo, Texas 78046
Bags decorated: 250
Comments: The neighborhood HEB helped us in this activity. The children had fun showing off their art for a great cause. Happy Earth Day.
This is a great project! Currently, I am student teaching and decided to try it out at the school I am in. It ended up almost every class participated. We decorated 500 bags for Earth Day. The school is Centralia Elementary in Anaheim, California. Stater Brothers was the grocery store that donated all the bags. I was also able to get the local newspaper to do a write up on our participation. This was great fun and I look forward to doing this next year as a new teacher!
Julie Collier
Patti Hahn
Cloverly School
Temple City, CA 91780
Bags decorated: 1850
Comments: The Temple City Ralph's Market gave us $92.50 for coloring our earth day bags. The Cloverly Student Council will be donating that money to the Red Cross for the Children of Kosovo. It is not much but thanks for giving us a chance to do something for our earth and the children of the earth.
Sherry Roepke
Robert E. Lee Elementary
Tullahoma, TN.
Bags decorated: 419
Comments: Our school had great fun and exhibited much creativity in decorating our bags. Thanks for the wonderful idea!
Jill Norvell
E.A.Harrold Elementary
Millington, TN USA
Bags decorated: 332
Comments: Our school collaberated with our local Kroger grocery store to collect, design, and decorate Earth Day messages on paper sacks. Our local newspaper, The Millington Star, became involved and wrote a story about us, complete with pictures!
The sacks have been returned and will be passed out to shoppers on Earth Day! We hope customers will learn more about helping the environment by becoming aware of Earth Day through the messages our students wrote!
Lucie Collier
Mt. Washington Elementary School
Cincinnati, Ohio USA
Bags decorated: 502
Comments: Children in grades K - 6 participated with the help of the Mt. Washington Kroger store in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Jane Stephenson
Southampton Middle School
Courtland, Va.
Bags decorated: 1,000
Comments: My classes sponsored a whole school decorating of the grocery bags from a local Food Lion store in Franklin, Va. Also, my kids are going to the Food Lion on April 22 to be greeters in the store and hand out hand decorated stickers to the customers. On the outside of the store, they are setting up three tables. One will include information and giveaways from our local Litter Control Council, another will include information from our extension office on composting and landscaping using mulch. the final table will be a nature table with a terrarium filled with Northern Fence Lizards and salamanders. the students will remind people of the wonders that we have in our own backyards right underfoot. They will also be showing their new project-- vermicomposting. It promises to be an exciting day!
Mary E. Dean
Cherokee School Science Classes
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Bags decorated: 300
Comments: This is the first year we have participated. The students enjoyed coming up with slogans, decorating the bags, and seeing that the community was interested in allowing their work to be distributed. We plan on participating again next year! Warehouse Market was the grocery store that allowed us to use their bags and then distribute them on earth day when they sacked groceries.
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!
Terri Dixon
Pinson Elementary
Pinson, Alabama
Bags decorated: 293
Comments: We had a great time coloring and decorating the bags for this project. Next year I am going to do an entire unit on it. There were so many other activities that you could do with this project. Thanks!
Cheryl Gurevitch
Akiva Academy
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Bags decorated: 85
Comments: The students were really excited about this project, and were happy to promote a variety of Earth Day messages.
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.
Anita Kolat
Jec School
Elizabeth, NJ
Bags decorated: 115
Comments: it was alot of fun , especially when the students realized grocery store customers would be using the bags they decorated. many students wanted to complete their bags as homework when time was up for the activity at school.
Marc Charpentier, Jeanne Menke, Jo-D Roth
Lauderhill Paul Turner Elementary,
Lauderhill, FL
Bags decorated: 850
Comments: Our school is located just west of Ft. Lauderdale in Broward County, Florida. We chose this activity because it allowed us to reach out into our community and join hands with Publix Supermarket, our Partner in Excellence. Our children loved it! We decorated our bags and the entire school participated. The Earth will be very happy.
E.Gaylor/L.White/C.Keefer/D.Sue
Iolani School
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: Iolani Lower School students participated in the Groceries Project, coordinated by the Science, Art, and Computer departments. Students took pride in this integrated unit of environmental awareness. The colorful and artistic messages depicted in these decorations reflected students' understanding of the need for CONSERVATION, REUSE AND RECYCLING. The support from Foodland Supermarket is much appreciated.
Sheri Betteridge
Malden Public School
Amherstburg, Ontario CANADA
Bags decorated: 225
Comments: This was our first year participating in the project. What a great idea. Our school is a small rural one and all students from Junior Kindergarten to grade 8 participated. 2 local grocery stores donated the bags and they turned out fantastic! The kids really enjoyed them. They were works of art. Next year I think that I will start a week earlier so that I can display them in the hallways for everyone to enjoy. Thanks for initiating a wonderful project!
In this message I am quoting from the newpaper article which appeared on Friday April 16th in the Fort Pierce News, in Fort Pierce, Florida, our hometown. I have also attached three JPEGs of our students making and showing their bags.
"The students in Dan Gelardo's art lab at St. Lucie ELementary School looked like they were having a great time painting grocery bags from Publix supermarket....All kindergarten through fifth grade classes at the school are taking part in an Earth Day project - painting pictures and slogans on between 500 and 550 Publix bags that will be used at the stores on Earth Day, Thursday April 22.....The idea came from a website found by kindergarten teacher Mar Lou Jennings, who thought the project would be a fun learning exercise for students. For the students, painting and learning made the project fun. Audrey Pierson drew a flower with a face and the slogan "Save Our Earth". "I used the flower because it is important to save the flowers while saving the earth." Audrey said. Jesse Reiter hopes his bag and the message it carries will stay around with its owner. "We have had a lot of fun painting and helping out the earth," Jesse said. "I hope the personwho gets my bag keeps it." Juan Moran, age 10, siad he hopes the project can help save the planet. "We want people to use the bags so they don't litter," Juan said. "If they litter, then we won't be able to live here and there aren't any other planets to live on. Also, littering will cause all the animals to become extinct."
Thanks for this wonderful opportunity. You can contact me at CaroleSLE@yahoo.com.
Carole Roberts
Janet Sheehan
Sardis Elementary School
Gainesville, GA
Bags decorated: 600
Comments: We were very happy to have Ingles Grocery Store in Gainesville, Georgia as our partner for the grocery bag project. Six hundred students in grades Kindergarten through Fifth participated. This was our first year, and comments from teachers and students mean that we will decorate bags again next year. They thought it was a wonderful project for our Earth Day activities.
Andrea Sobel
Edwards Elementary "Circle of Life"
Portland, OR.
Bags decorated: 40
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.
Kevin O'Connor
Notre Dame Elementary
Novelty, OH United States
Bags decorated: 50
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 Spearman
Union Elementary School
10400 Taylor's Bridge Hwy Clinton, N. C. 28328
Bags decorated: 48
Comments: Mrs. Thornton (Spearman's) 4th grade class again. Please make sure that FOOD LION OF CLINTON, N. C. and IGA OF Beaulaville, N. C. get the recognization that they deserve for allowing us to use their paper bags and and agreeing to distribute them to help us with our goal which is to reach as many people with out messages as possible. Thanks Again.
Michele Noble
Manor View Elementary
Ft. Meade, Maryland U.S.A.
Bags decorated: 602
Comments: Everyone in our school participated from Kindergarten up to Fifth Grade. Our third graders had a great time coordinating the project. They had to edit the bags, count them, and graph the number of bags completed in each grade. They particularly enjoyed creating certificates of appreciation for each of the classes using the computer. The first grade used this project to help reinforce persuasive writing. My class received 50 letters trying to convince us that each of the first grade bags deserved to go to the grocery store. Our third grade received many thank you's from teachers who were appreciative of our willingness to coordinate the Earth Day Bag Campaign.
Happy Earth Day, 1999!

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