Earth Day Groceries, 1999 Reports

This is Part 7, with reports from schools 501 -600.
Updated May 1,1999.

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.

Mary Catherine Campbell
Phoenix Magnet Elementary
Alexandria, Louisiana, USA
Bags decorated: 785
Comments: Students from grades K-5 participated in the project through Albertsons grocery store. Bags were used as a store decoration as well as used for groceries. Students enjoyed the project.
Susan Mullen
Turnpike Elementary School
Mildred, PA 18632 USA
Bags decorated: 600
Comments: The students and teachers really enjoyed this project. We ask our two local supermarkets in this small rural community to donate 300 paper bags each. The students then decorated 2 bags each and returned them to me. I in turn took all 600 of the paper bags to the grocery stores and they used them yesterday on Earth Day to increase awareness of Earthday in our community. It was a great success according to the checkout people at the grocery store as the shoppers were excited to get a decorated brown paper bag! Thank you!
Patricia L. Acosta
Garrison Elementary
Savannah, Georgia U.S.A.
Bags decorated: 635
Comments: The students enjoyed this activity, and some wrote letters to Mother Earth and glued them onto the bags. (We had a culminating assembly where Mother Earth came and read letters students had written in response to the book, "Dear Children of the Earth", by S. Shemmel. We will participate again next year. Thanks!!
We're St. Clement School at 790 Calhoun St. Hayward, CA 94544 and we just wanted to let you know that we participated in the grocery bag project.
We collected 225 bags from the local Lucky's, Safeway and Foods 4 Less stores. Our student body got into "families" which were made up with students from kindergarten through eighth grade, then broke into pairs (younger with older)to decorater a bag. The pictures and themes that were used were anything from save the whales to the rain forest, recycling to help keep the city clean. In all the students really enjoyed the doing there part and were excited to know that when they shopped at the local stores that they may get one of the bags that they decorated.
Maryann Harris
Administratvie Assistant
I did this last year at a private school w/ my kindergartners (12) and I now work for Los Angels Unified School District. I work at Van Nuys Elementary in Van Nuys, California. I teach 1,2, &3 Special Ed. mild/moderate. I have 15 students and I sent letters to all the teachers and asked for their support. I had 29 classes participate and we decorated 240 bags. I arranged to have my students take a walking field trip to Lucky's in Van Nuys, CA. We had a contest to see who could collect the most litter. When we got there we got a tour of the store. Gilbert, the store manager served fresh strawberries, cookies and the driver for Mother's Cookies was there and gave each child a bag of cookies!!! They also had a contest drawing for a soccer goal kit for Pepsi and my student's filled out the application which I brought back to the store with bags. The store manager, Gilbert, stated that they were going to donate the soccer kit to our school for doing such a nice job on the bags. All the kids were so excited and could not wait to go to Lucky's to see if they could get their bag or a friends. We also did a writing assignment after our field trip. They had to tell one thing they learned and what their favorite part of the field trip was. I had them illustrate it and glue on a large piece of green construction paper. I lamented it and hole punched it and that was our thank you card to Gilbert. He was very touched. It was a win-win situation and everyone had fun!!!! Thanks so much for starting this, this is my third year participating and each year we are getting more bags decorated. I have pictures but no scanner and would like to send you some. Could you give me an address as to where to send them!!! HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!!
Michele Severo,
Thousand Oaks, CA
I am a third grade teacher at Cedargrove Elementary School in Covina, California. I teach a cluster class of nineteen gifted and high achieving students. Each student decorated a shopping bag for our local Ralph's Market and I delivered them yesterday. My students have enjoyed this project and learning more about recycling.
Sincerely,
Kathy Walsh
Dianne Maloney
Columbia Elementary
Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada
Bags decorated: 342
Comments: What a great idea! I was excited about telling the rest of the school about it after seeing it on the internet. Our K-8 school gave our bags to the Co-op store in Yorkton. The manager and the shoppers thought it was a great idea also. Although this was our first year participating I'm very sure it will not be our last.
Hi, I am writing to let you know that Mokelumne Hill Elementary School in Mokelumne Hill, CA participated in the grocery bag project for this Earth Day in 1999. We are a K-6 with an enrollment of about 123 students. A small school in a tiny northern CA community. There are two stores in the town that took part in the project. They donated the grocery bags and we went to work decorating them with our very own Earth Day messages. Besides the grocery bags, we had a large bulletin board with an environmental theme, a raffle with theme prizes, and in order to enter the raffle, the children had to fill out the entry form that went home in their Tuesday folders by listing five things they and their family could do to help keep the earth healthy. To top it off, we all enjoyed some Environmints (chocolate candy with a card of an endangered species in it). We as a staff think the entire project turned out well and was a fine learning experience for all. The people in the community enjoyed our project results also. We intend to participate next year and we are glad to have found your site. Thank you, Jeannette T. Willard
Ruth van Veenendaal
Dudley Elementary School
Camden, NJ 08105
Bags decorated: 330
Comments: All students from Kindergarten through 5th grade participated in the Earth Day Groceries bag project. We distributed our bags among 3 neighborhood groceries along with posters explaining what they were for on the 21st for use on Earth Day. We hope we have made an impact on our neighborhood!!
Lynn Hanna
Sugarland Elementary
Leesburg, Virginia
Bags decorated: 67
Comments: The kids really enjoyed decorating the bags and the parents really enjoyed seeing their students work in the local grocery store! We also collected garbage around the school and the kids were amazed at the type of garbage they were finding. ( We also graphed the garbage they collected.)
Penny LeBlanc and Janet McFalda
Bedford Elementary
Dearborn Heights District #7
Bags decorated: 84
Comments: We had two 3rd grade classes and one 4th grade class that decorated bags from the local Safway. Many consumers had great things to say about the idea and were very very impressed with the art work the students created. The manager that was not so happy with the idea in the beginning was throughly pleased with the bags.:-) I believe next year our numbers will be higher.
Jeanne DuBois
St. Anthony de Padua School
South Bend, IN USA
Bags decorated: 426
Comments: The bags turned out great and the grocery store loved them. The local media was contacted but as yet there has been no coverage.
Joan Sweeney
New Lane Elem. Sch.
Bags decorated: 250
Comments: Our 11 third grade classes really enjoyed the earth day grocery bag project! This was our first year and hopefully we'll continue since it was so well received. We sent our bags to Waldbaums Grocery store in Selden, L.I.,N.Y.. Anyone interested in the Environmental Exchange Program please feel free to contact me, we would be interested. Thanks again!
Norma Cornman
Lafayette Pershing Elementary School
Carney's Point, NJ, USA
Bags decorated: 1000
Comments: Mrs. Cornman and Mrs. Merenda's Kindergarten Class, along with school staff members and 400 school students, decorated 1000 bags which were distributed at local supermarkets. Incollingo's Food Rite Supermarket and Lapp's Dutch Market donated the bags which were decorated by the students and returned to the stores for use by their customers. The students decorated the bags with Earth Day slogans which were obtained on the Earth Day Groceries Project web site. The students enjoyed the project and the staff members are talking about doing it again next year.
Greeting from Mountain Gardens School in Burlington, Ontario,Canada!. This is our first year as a participant in the Earth Day Groceries project. Since many grocery stores in our neighbourhood do not use paper bags the students decided to decorate recycled paper with environmental messages. In total 250 messages were decorated and divided evenly between the local Sobeys and Price Chopper for distribution to customers on Earth Day 1999. We also colour photcopied some of the most colourful messages which will be displayed on a bulletin board and scanned onto our web page. We even received phone calls from customers praising the students for their efforts!! Thanks again for a great idea !
Lynne Page and Liz Watson
Environmental Club Coordinators.
Mountain Gardens School
Burlington, Ontario
Canada
Report from: United Community In Christ School
3550 Itaska
St. Louis, Missouri 63111
Number of Bags Decorated: 100
Bags Provided By: Schnucks Markets
3430 South Grand Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63111
Person providing information: Judy Sowers
2nd Grade Teacher
Christie Heck and Nicole Hauser
Ina E. Driscoll Elementary School
Wilton, CT
Bags decorated: 800
Comments: What a wonderful idea! We had over thirty classes participate and all the children absolutely loved it. They are so excited about going to the stores to see all the bags. It was a great project that allowed students to express their own cares for our Earth. Thanks!!
Joan Milliken
Lake Norman Elementary School
Mooresville, North Carolina, USA
Bags decorated: 1,047
Comments: All 1,015 students in our K-5 elementary school participated. The students really enjoyed this hands-on activity! Our local newspaper covered this event and wrote a great artical about this project. I'm sure we will want to participate again next year. Thanks for helping us promote environmental awareness in our community!
Carol K.
Basileia, An Open Door Community of Christ
Orange County, California
Bags decorated: A few
Comments: Sunday group prepared bags for this worthwhile project!
Mrs. Mary Jo Neville
Portal Primary
Portal,Georgia Bulloch County
Bags decorated: 245
Comments: The children were very excited to do this project and our local I.G.A. were very supportive in this project.Thank you for including us in this very worthwhile project.
Patricia J. Schaff Campbell
McKinley Brighton Magnet Elementary
Bags decorated: 550
Comments: Thank-you for this project. The children had a wonderful time and it was a great idea. Teachers and administrators thought the idea was terrific!
Judy Munsie
Tanger Center
Plymouth, MI, 48170, USA
Bags decorated: 75
Comments: This is a great idea, very appropriate for all age elementary students, including my little ones.
Jim Davis
Allegheny Valley Elementary School
Clarendon, PA, USA
Bags decorated: 40
Comments: My science classes had fun with this project. Kondak's Market provided us with the bags.
Kathy Whitehead
Adrian R-III School
Adrian, MO/USA
Bags decorated: 52
Pam Alch and Tonie Alfonso
Commonwealth Ave School
Los Angeles, Ca.
Bags decorated: 700
Comments: We were looking for something new and different to promote Earth Day in our school and community. We had full participation of our on track classes. We brought the bags to Ralphs Grocery Store on April 22. We are still continuing to decorate and bring in more bags on an individual basis.
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
GAGE SCHOOLS
Our School decorated sacks for Earth Day and had a blast doing it!
Gage Elementary School
Hwy 15 Box 19
Gage, Ok. 73843
used 100 sacks from:
Venture Foods
% Lane and Angela
Shattuck, Ok. 73858
Just a note to proudly let you know that Moreland Discovery School, San Jose, CA decorated 180 bags from Whole Earth Foods in San Jose, CA.
Sincerely,
Joni Steele
Parent Volunteer at Moreland Discovery School, Room 2
I coordinated the project for my elementary school here in East Stroudsburg, PA. We decorated 371 grocery bags which were donated by Mignosi's IGA in Marshalls Creek, PA. It was an easy and fun project to do. Thanks!
Pat Sedlak
Middle Smithfield Elementary
5180 Milford Road
East Stroudsburg, PA 18301
Phil Cano
Hello. Like to thank you for your work in organizing this event. We are Hillcrest Elementary School in American Falls, Idaho (83211). We decorated approximately 650 brown paper sacks, donated by Paper Bag Council of the American Forest and Paper Association, and distributed them to 2 supermarkets in our small town (pop.-3500). The project was well received.
Judith Bowen
Our 28 kindergarten students decorated 120 grocery bags to be given out at the Winn Dixie store on st, rd, 84 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. We can't wait to find out the national total! Thanks for the idea-we really enjoyed the project.
Mrs. Bowen & Mrs. Stansbury
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.
Matt Berg
Ft. Belvoir Elementary
Ft. Belvoir, VA, U.S.A.
Bags decorated: 977
Comments: What a beautiful collection of bags. They were quite unbelievable! Great idea.
Earth Day Committee
Montowese Elementary School
North Haven CT USA
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: This was our school's first year participating in the Earth Day Groceries Project. All students in grades K-5 participated in decorating a total of 500 bags. We have gotten a lot of positive feedback from this project. We think it is a wonderful way to spread environmental awareness!
Juli Hansen- Ficano
P.S.45
Staten Island, NY 10310
Bags decorated: 145
Comments: Three classes at ps 45, staten island, worked on the bag project. Our kids really enjoyedn it, and learned alot.
Sandra Ward
Lombardi School
Green Bay, WI USA
Bags decorated: 1200
Peggy R. Skeen
Pine Grove School
Orcutt, California
Bags decorated: 200
Comments: The manager/owner of a small local market in the area was more than happy to donate the bags to our school. The children decorated them with Earth Day slogans and beautiful pictures of the Earth. The patrons of the store almost didn't want to take the paper bag home since it was no nicely decorated. The bags will be continued to be used even after Earth Day until they are used up at the store. It was a very positive experience for everyone involved. I will send a picture as soon as possible.
Nancy Kelso
Northside School
Montrose, CO
Bags decorated: 50
Comments: My co-worker Marie Novotny also decorated 25 bags for Safeway She is also third grade at Northside. Great activity! thekids really enjoyed it. 25 bags were for City Market 25 bags were for Safeway
Jennifer Campbell
Plantation Park Elementary School
Bossier City, LA
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: Our school loved this project! What a wonderful way to provide community awareness of this special day! Super 1 Foods let us "borrow" the bags and they let the customers sack their groceries with our decorated Earth Day bags. This is a project that we will continue to do for years to come! Thanks for the super idea!
Bridget Norman
Sunrise Dr. Elementary School
Sayville, NY
Bags decorated: 200
Comments: Thanks for letting us get involved in such a terrific project. Four third grade classes at Sunrise Dr. Elementary School (Sayville, NY) participated: Mrs. Abrams' Class, Mrs. Falco's Class, Mrs. Michaels' Class and Mrs. Norman's class. With the generous donation of bags by our local supermarket, Grand Union, we were able to distribute our Earth Day sentiments to our community. Looking forward to doing it again next year!
James Diegnan
Collins Elementary School,
Livingston Public Schools
Livingston, New Jersey
Bags decorated: 368
Comments: The local Kings Supermarket donated bags for Collins School to participate in this wonderful project. The students came back to school as part of an Environmental Voting Night. Check out our website to find out more about the issues we vcted on and to see pictures of our bags.
DEBORAH CHIARAVALLO
Southard School
Howell,New Jersey 07731 U.S.A.
Bags decorated: 400
Comments: Grand Union Supermarket has donated the necessary bags for our students in grades one through six at Southard School. Our supermarket displayed a banner in their window advertising this event and they also took candid shots of the customers receiving their Earth Bag.
It was a fun activity, with an important message about preservation, and we hope to be a part of it next year.
Bags decorated: 253
This is our second year to participate in this Earth Day Project. Students at Pauline South Intermediate School (located in SW Topeka, KS) decorated 253 bags which were donated by the Pauline Grocery Center. Students enjoyed decorating the bags as well as learning how to save our earth. We will be looking forward to Earth Day 2000!
Science Club Members
Pauline South Intermediate School
Wakarusa, KS 66546
forbesm@aw437.k12.ks.us
Rose Magrann
Mark Newbie Elementary School
Collingswood, NJ
Bags decorated: 186
Comments: I am happy to report that our K-6 school (student enrollment: 205)decorated 186 grocery bags that were provided by the ACME Supermarket in Westmont, New Jersey. The messages were varied and the art work was beautiful!
My name is Irene Cronin. I am student teaching at Valley Cottage Elementary School (in Rockland County New York), where I coordinated your project. I found the website address in a classroom management magazine I subscribe to. I am writing to tell you that the students at Valley Cottage Elementary decorated 400 bags. We worked together with the A&P in Valley Cottage. They were extremely helpful and more than happy to supply the bags. Thank you very much and please give me any further information I might need from this point in the project.
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.
Karla C. Euell
J.C. Mitchell Elementary
Boca Raton, Florida
Bags decorated: 420
Comments: Thank you for the wonderful idea. The children (Kindergarten - 5th) did a wonderful job decorating the bags, and were thrilled to know that the people of the community would be receiving their Earth Day messages. Thanks to our local Publix for donating the bags!
Cindy Mahrer
North Hillsborough Elementary School
Hillsborough, CA
Number of bags decorated: Between 150-200.
Third graders and one class of kindergartners at North Hillsborough Elementary School decorated bags from the local Safeway store. The students brainstormed Earth Day messages and enjoyed decorating the bags with the messages and colorful pictures. The Safeway store is allowing us to post a banner as well as several of the decorated bags. Next year we hope to involve the entire school in the project. It is a worthwhile activity that helps promote environmental awareness and the kids had fun too.
Julie Brady
Miami Shores Elementary School
Bags decorated: 1100
Comments: Our students and teachers enjoyed this project and felt that it was a good way to let our community know that we think Earth Day is very important, every day!
Linda Reister
Lake Chelan High School
Chelan, WA. 98816
Bags decorated: 700
Comments: This was our first effort decorating the bags. My Leadership class broke into groups and presented, supervised and helped elementary children at our Elementary School with this project. Both our grocery stores provided the bags and were excited with the results. What a great project for my older students to so plan, speak, and present. We will try to participate again next year.
Isabel S. Pacheco
Kriewald Road Edison Elementary
San Antonio, Texas
Bags decorated: 475
Comments: H.E.B. Grocery Store here near our area was our sponsor for the wonderful project. The children here at Kriewald are so proud to be a part of an awareness project. Thanks from all of us here in San Antonio!
Jim DeLuca
French Broad Food Coop
Asheville, NC
Bags decorated: 250
Comments: Our natural foods cooperative grocery worked with the Claxton Elementary School art classes to have 250 grocery bags decorated. Grades 1 to 6 all participated. Our store displayed some of the bags throughout the store and sent shoppers on their way with the beautiful bags. Some shoppers did not want the groceries into the bags because they said they were too nice. What a great experience.
Janet Nordfors Troy Central School
Troy, Maine, USA
Bags decorated: 76
Comments: Our school had a health fair and included a table on a healthy environment where fair goers could decorate a bag
Jackie Powney
Springbrook Elementary School
Orangeville, Ontario, Canada
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: Thanks for the amazing project! I found it on the internet and had intended on using it with my own class, hoping to interest a few other teachers in the process. As our project grew, every single class from grade 1 - 8 ended up decorating bags. We delivered them to one grocery store, and the local paper showed up to take our picture and do a write-up. I plan on getting more schools in our area involved next year. Any ideas about how to involve stores that print logos on both sides of their bags? We live in a small town with three large grocery stores, and only one store uses blank bags. Maybe if they're given enough notice and are interested they could order blank bags for the project. Has anyone tried this? Thanks again, and happy Earth Day! Sincerely, J. Powney
Lou Oney
Stone Elementary
Hobbs, New Mexico, USA
Bags decorated: 44
Comments: To celebrate Earth Day 44 fourth grade students at Stone Elementary School in Hobbs, New Mexico decorated brown grocery bags with colorful Earth Day messages. They can't wait to see if someone they know gets their bag. They also picked up trash on our playground and then made a mural on how they can make a difference in making the Earth a better place for everyone.
Margaret Nolan
Miles River Middle School
Hamilton, MA 01982 U.S.A.
Bags decorated: 200
Comments: This was a great project which our students enjoyed! Thanks for the idea!
Lou Goodman
Northwood School
Northwood, New Hampshire, USA
Bags decorated: 336
Comments: Approximately 250 students in grades k-4 decorated 336 bags. The bags were donated by a small local country store in town called Northwood Country Market, and a large grocery store, Market Basket, in Lee, NH. It was our first involvement with the program and we hope to do even more next year!
Miss Angie Davis' Class
Hewitt Elementary
Trussville, AL
Bags decorated: 325
Comments: I think it was fun decorating the bags because it was neat to put information about recycling on them. - Lauren
I think it is neat that they are really going to use our bags for the people who buy groceries today. - Elizabeth
I thought it was cool because we had to decorate them and they are going to be used in the store. Your friend might even go in for groceries and get your bag. - Kent
I liked to see the other class' bags when they brought them to our class. - Robby
I think it was cool because we get to send a message to a bunch of people when they buy their groceries. - David
I think it was neat because they had all these different kids draw all these different designs on the grocery bags. The people who don't know about Earth Day will see that it is today. - Caitlin
It was a helpful project because we got to inform the world. - Kim
I think it was cool because the kids used their creativity. - Cora
I think it is neat because we got to draw on it and it actually goes to Winn Dixie and everybody gets to see it. People who don't recycle might begin to recycle. - Daniel
I like the doing the bags because the things we made were neat because we could draw what we wanted that was related to Earth Day. - Erin
We had the entire school participate in this year's grocery bag project !! Here at Conestoga Valley Middle School in Lancaster, PA , the student body of 550 decorated paper bags from the local Giant. We delivered them to the delight of the customers and staff. Some of the students got their picture in the local paper. This year's project was a great success !! Happy Earth Day 1999 !!
Thank you.
ROGER CAMPBELL
CVMS
500 Mount Sidney Road
Lancaster, PA 17602
Emily Cochran
Dug Gap Elementary School
Dalton, GA, United States
Bags decorated: 117
Comments: Studemts in the third grade classes and the ESOL classes participated in the project. They learned about Earth Day and also had a great time decorating their bags. They were really excited that their local Kroger was going to hand their bags out to customers.
Michele Lee
Norwood School
Bethesda, MD, USA
Bags decorated: 519
Comments: Sent to two grocery stores, decorated by students in grades kindergarten through sixth. We will be submiting pictures.
L Short
Brookwood School
Manchester By The Sea, MA
Bags decorated: 178
Cynthia Calamia
Orchard Elementary School
California
Bags decorated: 202
Comments: We had a great time decorating the grocery bags. This is the first year we are part of this project. It has been a great experience and we definitely want to keep doing it every year. Our school is year round, so most of the kids were not at school. We were able to do this project with the children that came for Intersession classes. Five of the teachers participated with a total of 90+ students. We delivered the bags to the local grocery store: PW MARKET. They are distributing them today. We would like to get our school name and our pictures on your web site. Please let us know how to get that done. We are looking forward to keep our Earth clean.
Robert Sullivan
Aims Community College
Greeley CO
Bags decorated: 12
 Comments: Thailand Intensive English Program students made these bags. We are 12 to 14 year olds who are visiting the USA for 6 weeks to learn English and American culture.
MRS.BAKER
POWELL COUNTY MIDDLE
STATON, KY 40380
Bags decorated: 110
Carole Foreman
Lincoln Elementary School
Shawano, WI USA 54166
Bags decorated: 300
Comments: The students in our 1-4 elementary school designed, decorated and delivered 300 bags to Pick n Save Grocery Store in Shawano. Pick n Save donated the bags to us. The students did a fantastic job. It was a great project.
Wayne E. Baldwin, Jr
Nipher Middle School
Kirkwood, MO USA
Bags decorated: 275
Comments: We discovered this great idea via your article in Science & Children My wife, Ruth Ann (8th grade/North Kirkwood MS), & I (7th grade/Nipher Middle School) are science teachers in the Kirkwood R-7 School District, a suburb of St. Louis. We secured our bags from the local Schnuck's supermarket chain. Our store is on the NE corner of the intersection of Woodlawn Avenue & Manchester Road. This was our pilot year... we were only able to involve our own teams (7W & 8E), plus one other team at Nipher (7N)...next year, we are going for 600 bags!
Judy Velardi and Elaine Hall
School of the Madeleine
Berkeley, CA. U.S.A.
Bags decorated: 315
Comments: We thought that this was a wonderful project. The children were very enthusiastic. We want to give a special thanks to Andronico's Supermarkets for their contribution of all the bags plus an Oreo cookie treat.
Beth Halkias
Monroe Elementary
Davenport, Iowa 52802
Bags decorated: 80
Comments: Greetings from Davenport, Iowa! Our 5th graders decorated bags and delivered them to Eagles and Jewel Food stores in our area. We hope our Earth Day messages will spread throughout our community and around the world!
Joey Patrucco
Furnace Woods School
Cortlandt Manor, NY 10567
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: All of the students of Furnace Woods Elementary School(K-5) particpated in decorating grocery bags for our local A&P grocery store. The students enjoyed relaying their Earth Day messages on the bags. We hope to particpate again next Earth Day.
Pat Cooney
Farmingville
Ridgefield, Connecticut
Bags decorated: 364
Comments: We learned that children can help grown-ups become more aware of the environment.Through the paper bag project we learned that we can encourage others to REDUCE REUSE and RECYCLE! We are sorry that animals can sometimes eat styrofoan or plastic and die. We think we should use rags more instead of paper towels to save our trees. We think older children should pass down used toys to younger siblings instead of always buying new ones. We think we should not waste water, especially when brushing our teeth! We learned a lot and had fun at the same time!!!
Bonnie Young
Happy Valley Elementary School
Santa Cruz, California USA
Bags decorated: 150
Miss Kathleen Finn
Elliott Street School
Newark, New Jersey, USA
Bags decorated: 700
Comments: We decorated bags for the Shop Rite in Bloomfield, NJ. The whole school worked on this project.
We enjoyed decorating them. We have learned a lot about saving the Earth, so we were glad to spread our messages to others! Thank you for the wonderful idea. HAPPY EARTH DAY !
Miss Finn's Third Grade Class
Susan Simmons
Epping Middle School
Epping, New Hampshire
Bags decorated: 50
Doris Wooten
Laurel Mountain Elementary
Austin, Texas
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: This was our first year to participate in this Earth Day project. It was terrific and the whole school was very enthusiastic about making others aware of their environment here on the Earth. We definitely plan to participate next year
Mimi Duncan
Upson Lee Middle School
Thomaston,Georgia 30286
Bags decorated: 400
Susan LeBlanc
Skiles Test Elementary
Indianapolis, IN
Bags decorated: 700
Comments: My students loved the idea that they were teaching the adults of Indianapolis about saving their earth
Allyson Boe
Norman County East Elementary School
Gary, MN, USA
Bags decorated: 240
Comments: The project was great! The students had a fun time decorating the bags. They came up with some very creative slogans to put on their bags. I'm sure the community members will enjoy them as much as we did!
Michelle Kelly
Mountain View Elementary
Great Falls, MT 59405
Bags decorated: 206
Comments: We are a K-5 school. We decorated 206 bags and took them to the County Market closest to our school. We made signs for each register that asked the people to help our school support Earth Day by using paper bags.
Our school turned in 62 paper bags that we decorated for Earth Day. Garden Valley School in Williston, North Dakota has grades 1-8. We turned them in to our Albertson's store in Williston. The value of this project is to send a message to people about taking care of our earth.
Jean Berger
The second grade classes at Dilworth Elementary in Salt Lake City,Utah decorated 50 bags for Albertsons.
Stevane Godina
Lonnie Drouhard
Aloha Park Elementary
Aloha, Oregon
Bags decorated: 353
Comments: We had a high participation at our school, from Kindergarten to 5th grade. The bags turned out WONDERFULLY!! The bags were provided by our local Albertson's who even delivered and picked them up for us. This is a great project. I am glad to see so many participants!!
Julie DeRoshia
Wilder Elementary - Lake Washington S.D.
Woodinville, WA
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: Our 5th grade class helped organize, distribute and decorate 500 bags for this year's Earth Day Grocery Bag project! We really enjoyed being a part of this project and we learned a lot about the importance of recycling and taking care of our Earth! Our local QFC (Quality Food Centers), in the Redmond Bella Bottega shopping center, agreed to distribute our bags on Earth Day - we appreciate their participation! Other teachers' classes that were involved in helping to decorate our bags included Mr. Holbrook, Mrs. Johnston, Mrs. Baus, Mrs. Cosme, Mrs. Dramer, Mrs. Harewood, Mrs. Egan, Mrs. Peterman, Mr. Johnson, Mrs. Sabourin, Mrs. Anderson, and Ms. Sheffield.
For more information about our project, check out our school web site (soon to be up and running!)and the pictures we submitted to this web site. Thanks to everyone for making this year's Earth Day Grocery Bag Project a success...we plan on being involved next year!
Our 3rd grade reading club participated in this project. We decorated 12 grocery bags that will be given out at our local JayC grocery store. Our school is Corydon Elementary School in Corydon, Indiana.
Diana Lasky
Erica MacKinnon
Cedar Grove-Belgium Middle School
Cedar Grove Wisconsin, 53013
Bags decorated: 445
Comments: Thank you for organizing such a great project. We made Earth Day bags which were donated by the local Piggly Wiggly. We decorated our bags in both English and in Spanish. We hope to have even more people participate next year.
Colleen Mattison
Eagleton Elementary
Maryville, TN USA
Bags decorated: 350
Comments: Bi Lo Grocery Store loaned us the bags and we had a wonderful time decorating. Many of the children were going to have there parents shop at Bi Lo so they could get one of the bags!
KIM ANDERSON 4-1
ELC Middle School
Estherville, IA
Bags decorated: 13
Anne Pfitzner
Soldotna Elementary School
Soldotna, Alaska
Bags decorated: 187
Comments: Six different classrooms ranging from 1st grade to 6th grade decorated bags for our local Safeway grocery store.
My sixth grade science students have delivered 80 decorated grocery bags to Albertson's Grocery store in Franklin, TN.
Amy Holman
Freedom Intermediate School
Franklin Special School District
840 Glass Lane
Franklin, TN 37064
Mrs. Tonkavich's 5th Grade Class
R. B. Havens Elementary School
Saginaw, Michigan
Bags decorated: 154
Comments: April 22, 1999
Mrs. Tonkavich's 5th Grade Class
We included students in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades in our project this year. Everyone had FUN decorating their bag! The bags were taken to Meijer, our local store to be used today.
Janet Gough
Frontier School
Red Rock , Oklahoma
Bags decorated: 108
Comments: This was so much fun! As our town has no grocery store, we did it for a store in Stillwater, Ok.
What a great project! We had a ball doing it and have had great support from the kids and teachers. I took some photos this morning for the local paper and will try to get them to you all for the site. Thank you for developing this idea. We are already thinking of ways to make this even better for our community next year. Please keep me posted on any other projects you guys have going. Our kids are really excited about this!
Thanks again,
Mimi Miller
Kyrene de la Mirada PTA Vice President
Dwana Selanoff
Mt.Eccles Elem.
Cordova, Alaska
Bags decorated: 250
Comments: Kids at our elementry school (K-6) decorated the bags that we recieved. Thank you, they enjoyed the activity. Here in Cordova we have two grocery stores which do not offer paper bags. Cordova dosen't have a recycle bin for plastics, however our Post Office recycles paper and cardboard. This project has aided in awareness to the kids and the community as a whole will hopefully be informed of our recycling at the Post Office. A select few from my office chose ten of the decorated bags that best described Earth Day. These bags are on display at the Post Office. We informed the community of Earth Day by submitting a section in the newsletter this month. ~dwana-Americorps Member
Mrs. Cranston
St. Joseph School - Grade 1
Kingston, New York
Bags decorated: 41
Comments: We had fun decorating the bags.
Mrs. Katie Jones
Newhall Elementary
Newhall, CA
Bags decorated: 18
Comments: The students loved the project and were excited to see their work displayed at the store. However, the manager was not familiar with the procedures of the program. I had to ask him to display the bags and explain to him the program.
Sandra Moreno
Will Rogers Learning Community
Santa Monica, California
Bags decorated: 18
Comments: Ms. Sarah Braff's 3rd grade class decorated 18 grocery bags in celebration of earth day. The bags will be delivered today to the Ralph's store at Cloverfield Blvd. and 26th St. in Santa Monica. The class would like to thank Ralph's for giving it the opportunity to send a message about protecting the environment.
Lesley Byrne
Greenville Montessori School
Bags decorated: 100
Comments: This is our first year to participate in the Earth Day Groceries Project. Our 38 students loved decorating the bags. We worked very hard to complete them today and yesterday. We look forward to doing it again next year. Happy Earth Day to the world!
Elementary Students at Greenville Montessori School, NC
Mimi Miller
Kyrene de la Mirada PTA
Chandler, AZ
Bags decorated: 750
Comments: We teamed up with a local Albertson's store (located at 48th & Ray Rd.) to work on this project. We had iincredible support from teachers and students for this project. Over 750 bags were decored by student in all grades - K-5 and have been displayed at the store. Today (22nd) they will be used to bag the groceries purchased at the store. A big thanks to Stan Zoller, Albertson's store manager who encouraged us to tackle this project and all the kids and teachers who participated. We are already talking about what we will be doing next year to make this even more of a celebration. Thanks for the great project idea!!
Our fourth grade class at Rock Creek School in Erwin,TN participated in the grocery bag project. A student named Jaclyn has a brother who works at a local grocery store so she had him get bags for us and she returned them to the store. We decorated twenty bags. On Earth Day we also planted flowers in front of our school. Other classes in our school picked up trash and made signs about Earth Day.
Mrs. Bowman's Fourth Grade Class
Carolyn Longo (clongo@windhamsd.org
Golden Brook School
Windham, NH 03087
Bags decorated: 187
Comments: Our second graders decorated the "borrowed" bags and then returned them to our local Shaws in Salem,NH, and Market Basket in Londonderry, NH.The students were excited and enthusiastic about this grade-wide project...and are now hoping they get some feedback after the bags are distributed! We look forward to participating again next year and possibly expanding the project to include the whole school. It is a worthwhile project that is also easy and fun!
Happy Earth Day, 1999!

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