Earth Day Groceries, 1999 Reports

This is Part 10, with reports from schools 901 -1,000.
Updated May 5,1999.

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.

Karns Intermedate School, Knoxville Tennessee
The third, fourth, and fifth grade stuents decorated almost 1000 grocery bags for food lion to distribute on Earth Day. This was our first year with the Earth Day groceries project. We look forward to participating next year.
Terry Jones
Karns Intermediate School
Greetings from Lower Pottsgrove Elementary School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania! The students, staff and parent volunteers at Lower decorated 1,000 bags! We gave 600 bags to Kemp's Market and 400 bags to Thriftway Supermarket. We have included some wonderful pictures from our efforts! Jonathan in Mrs. Murphy's 5th grade class is showing his Earth Day bag! We displayed some bags in an environmental bulletin board. We also have a second grader working with his Pre-first buddy. Some other pictures include 2nd and 3rd graders as well as some students from Miss Bonekemper's AM and PM Kindergarten classes showing they want to help the Earth!
As always the project was enjoyed by all...see you next year!
Mrs. Costanzo
Second grade teacher
Washington Elementary School in Whitewater, Wisconsin.
The pictures are from the day that our students worked as partners, lower elementary students with upper elementary students and our head start, to make the grocery bags for our local SuperValue store. The store used them to bag groceries on Earth Day. Our students had a great time. Thank You.
Mary Jane Steinhoff
Organizer: Marilyn Potter
Teacher/Librarian - École Van Walleghem School
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
91 bags decorated
More bags can be viewed at: www.assd.winnipeg.mb.ca/schools/vw/
Grades 4 and 5 students from École Van Walleghem School participated in this project. We decorated 91 grocery bags with environmental slogans and artwork. Four students - one from each of the participating classes - then took a trip to Grant Park Safeway to deliver our bags. Safeway displayed our bags, and then distributed them to to customers on april 22 - Earth Day. We took photos of all stages of the project and put them up on the Web. This project was really fun and we hope the whole school will participate for Earth Day in 2000!
Our school is Ascension of Our Lord in LaPlace, LA. Thanks a lot! Mrs. DiMaggio's eighth grade reading students decorated over 100 bags participating in this great project. The bags were then returned to our local Winn Dixie for shoppers the day before Earth Day. In addition, these students designed and displayed six Earth Day Bulletin boards around our school, including information about Earth Day, endangered animals, and how to recycle. It was a great week for all of us. The plants that we planted are still blooming around our classroom!
Mrs. Amy DiMaggio
Reading Teacher
Ascension of Our Lord School
LaPlace, LA
Bags Decorated: 428
Comments: This was an awesome project! It was the very first time that our school has participated in the Earth Day Groceries Project. Each student in our school Pre-K through 6th grades decorated a bag. Our bags were donated by our neighborhood Publix Store - Flakes Mill Crossing. We were so very grateful to them for their participation. In our school the Earth Day Project was directed by Mrs. Wall a 3rd grade teacher, however, it was organized and coordinated by a team for fourteen 3rd grade students deemed the ED Committee. Each student was assigned a classroom to make a brief oral presentation on the project, distributed and picked up the completed bags. This was an exciting time for all . Our students thoroughly enjoyed this project and it is our intention to participate again next year. Let's begin today, by making Earth Day, every day!
Tanya Wall
Bob Mathis Elementary
Decatur, Georgia
Students at Lake Mary Elementary in Lake Mary, FL had a great time decorating bags for Earth Day and discussing ways they can help protect the envirnoment. The whole school ( 750 students) participated in this project. The grocery bags were donated by four local grocery stores, Albertsons, Goodings, Publix, and Winn Dixie. The bags were delivered on Wednesday so they could be used for groceries on Earth Day. Our school enjoyed the project and we'll definetly participate again next year. The attached photos are from Lawrence's Fifth grade, Mrs. Nelson's Third grade, and Mrs. Groover's Second grade class. More photos will be on our web page in May. You can visit us at http://nt1.scps.k12.fl.us/site/lkmaryel/
. Thanks for providing the internet project,
Dr. Jarvis
Tech Specialist, Lake Mary Elementary
Mrs. Barbara McMillan
American Bankers Satellite Learning Center
Miami, FL USA
2nd Grade
Students from both of our schools are involved in a telecommunications project called: Key-Pal Power. Our students enjoyed sharing in this Earth Day Groceries activity. Together our students decorated approximately 200 bags. The bags were distributed at our local Publix. Our Earth Day activities included:
decorating Publix grocery bags
a composting demonstration
planting flowers
a recycling storyteller
eating "dirt cups" (crushed cookies layered with pudding and gummi-worms)
eating "ocean cups" (blue gelatin with gummi-fish)
View our Key-Pal Power Project Page.
I am so excited to let you know what a fun experience we had today participating in the Earth Day Grocery Bag Project. My name is Wendy Adams and I am a teacher at Colleyville Elementary School. I headed up this project at our school and would like to have our school added to your web site. Below is some info for you.
Kroger donated the bags that we used. The entire 3rd grade, (approx. 80 students) at Colleyville Elementary School in Colleyville, Texas participated. Each student decorated one bag, so we decorated 80 bags. I am attaching some photos, I took them with the Sony Digital Camera at school, but am not sure exactly how to upload them to you, so if you don't receive the photos please let me know. Also if you need any additional info, let me know. I look forward to doing this again!!!
Sincerely,
Wendy Adams
Susquehanna Community Elementary School is participating in the sixth annual Earth Day Groceries Project! Students in grades K-6 decorated approximately 900 grocery bags with environmental messages. On Earth Day, April 22nd, and all during that week, these bags will be passed out (full of groceries) to shoppers at Fred's Market and Schneider's Market. Besides carrying an environmental message, each bag will also have some wonderful artwork. The people in our community will hopefully get a very clear and positive message that the students at our school care about their environment.

Thank you,
Robert Keyes
Elementary Principal
Lorie Fallon
The fourth grade students at Upper Allen Elementary School in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania participated in the Earth Day Grocery Bag Project for the first time this year. The students decorated over 200 paper grocery bags with colorful environmental messages in celebration of Earth Day 1999. Giant Foods on Cumberland Parkway in Mechanicsburg donated the bags for the students to decorate, and Giant will distribute the bags (packed with groceries) to its customers on Earth Day, April 22, 1999. The students enjoyed this Project, and it helped them to gain an increased awareness about Earth Day and environmental conservation.
The Fourth Grade Teachers:
Mrs. Ressler, Miss Harrington, Miss Wampler, Mr. Miller, and Mrs. Shuff (Student Teacher)
Geoffr3620@aol.com
Ocosta Elementary School in Westport,WA
Here are some of the students from the third grade and their finished bags. All the third graders have been very excited to have had the chance to participate in this event. And be able to see their pictures with other classes from around the United States. We would also like to thank Ted's Red Apple for also participating in this exciting event!
Mrs. Macy
Bags decorated: 120
S.J.R. Junior School students in Grades 2, 5, and 6 decorated grocery bags from Vic's, a store in their school neighborhood. The store owner was very cooperative in supporting our participation. Doing this project raised awareness of global environmental concerns amongst our students. It was also fun! There are more details and pictures on our school website (http://www.sjr.mb.ca/jschool/stuwork/1998-99/earthday). Thank you for a great project idea!
Kevin Grant
St. John's-Ravenscourt School (http://www.sjr.mb.ca)
Wiinnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Happy Earth Day 1999! Our school ( grades K-6) was truly excited about this. We teamed up with Giant Eagle grocery store for this project. We decorated over 350 bags. We look forward to participating next year.
From Central School- Kent ,Ohio
Mrs. Ball - Grade 2
We began this project as just fourth graders but soon everybody else wanted to help us decorate bags and get out the Earth Day message! We had great fun putting this together. Our bags were delivered to local stores the day before Earth Day. Thanks for letting us help out!
Mrs. Ruller's Fourth Graders
Woodside Elementary School
Peekskill, New York
Team D sixth graders at Dorseyville Middle School of the Fox Chapel Area School District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania took great pride in celebrating Earth Day. The students created community awareness by decorating 52 grocery bags. Their messages of concern were beautifully designed by using various art media. These were then put on display in the hallway to share with other students. Photos of the children working in their science classes on this Earth Day project and some of their finished designs are included.
Tracey Zigo
Computer Coordinator
Dorseyville Middle School
Pittsburgh, PA
Prairie View Elementary School in Sandwich, Illinois
Eileen Baird
Student's at AB Hart Middle School, located at 3901 E. 74th Street in Cleveland, Ohio participated in the Earth Day Groceries Project to help educate the public on the event.
The local Finast market donated bags to decorate, and Terry, the stores manager, displayed the finished art work around the store the week prior to Earth Day. They were then taken down and distributed to customers the week of the celebration.
The project was taken on in science classrooms, as well as in several art classes. Student's also viewed a video on recycling and read about recycling and the difficulties of this industry. Some alternative ideas were discussed, mentioning ways to further reduce consumer waste.
This was a very enjoyable and educational experience.
C. Hardman
Orchard School of Science
Cleveland OH USA
Bags decorated: 550
Comments: This was a very worthwhile project for all of our students in grades PreK- 5. The art teachers integrated science science and art. The bags were delivered to Giant Eagle.
Mrs. C. Bocker
Hubert,NC
Bags decorated: 400
Comments: I found your grocery bag idea while surfing the net and brought the idea to our art teacher and principal. They both loved the idea and so I checked with our local FoodLion store and they agreed to sponcer us. The students in grades K-4 worked on decorating the bags during their art class. Let me tell you, the bags looked great and got the message about recycling, reuse and use paper bags out to the community. Each grade level did a different design. Kindergarten did a world that was smiling. Sand Ridge Elementary is very proud to have been part of this worthy cause.
Brian Monk
Edison Elementary
Kennewick, WA USA
Bags decorated: 354
Comments: Happy Earth Day Everyone! This is the third year we have participated. This year we decorated bags from two stores. We decorated 76 for Albertson's and 278 for Waremart for a total of 354 bags. Over 300 students participated.
Jack Leiman
Sherman Elementary School
Tacoma, WA
Bags decorated: 151
Comments: From Sherman Elementary School in Tacoma, Washington
We learned about recycling and garbage. Garbage is thrown away by, about 4-6 pounds by 1 person a day. Never litter. Recycling is you take a thing you don’t want and put it in a blue container. But it has to be a certain thing. We have bags that we colored and wrote on, like Happy Earth Day. Millions of people recycle everyday. Speaking of the bags, we decorated 151 of them.
Mike-Grade 2
Dear people all around the world,
We had lots of fun at school. We studied recycling. We learned that each year we make 162,000,000 of garbage. Then we got to go to a real landfill in Tacoma. This is how we started making our bags. First we thought of many good things to say on the bags. Then we wrote our good ideas on the bag. Then we colored the bags. They all turned out really pretty.
Cassandra-Grade 2
Gail Ritchie
Kings Park Elementary School
Springfield, Virginia
Bags decorated: 175
Comments: Our local grocery store was happy to provide us with bags to decorate. However, they requested that we NOT return them, because somebody had sued them in a previous year when magic marker got on his suit! We used the decorated bags to store our Earth Day Celebration creations. We asked each family to then use the bag for recycling or take it themselves to the grocery story and get 3˘ off their grocery bill when their bag was used for packing their own groceries.
Vera Prater
Fern Creek Elementary
Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Bags decorated: 850
Comments: Hello to all!
Fern Creek Elementaryhas successfully completedour first year of participation. Our school total for 1999 is 850 beautifully decorated grocery bags, generously donated by our nearby Winn-Dixie. All students eagerly shared their "earth-wise" knowledge with the community in this unique project!
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
On Wednesday, April 14th, St. John the Baptist School decorated grocery bags with an Earth Day theme. The bags were handed out to lucky shoppers who bought groceries at the Thriftway in Sellwood. Students took markers, crayons, and colored pencils, and drew pictures on the bags. Many of the students put a slogan on it like, "Save Our Earth." Every student attending St. John the Baptist school had the opportunity to decorate two grocery bags. The older students helped the younger students work on their bags.
All the students and teachers enjoyed working together. Matt, an 8th grade student, said, "I liked doing the bags for Earth Day because it reminds people how important the Earth really is."
By: Nick C.
Ellen Kennedy
Ann Pervinkler
Waikoloa Elementary
Waikoloa, Hawaii, USA
Bags decorated: 486
Comments: Our community was surprised and delighted. Teachers called this one a win/win. The village association was having a meeting on Earth Day eve doing literally bags full of business when one group leader said, "We need to end before nine tonight so we can get to the store, have you all seen the bags, I have to have one!
Jennifer Brown
Hillside Avenue School
Cranford, NJ, USA
Bags decorated: 302
Comments: This project was initiated by one of our student teachers, Ms. Deborah Schademann, who is teaching in 1st grade. It was a very successful project in my class (5th grade) and I will certainly participate next year. It is a great way to introduce the themes of Earth Day
Judy Franceschi
St. Mary's Elementary School
Walnut Creek, CA
Bags decorated: 140
Comments: The 6th graders organized the grocery project with the help of a parent volunteer. They brought in sample grocery bags from their local stores to see which had the most blank space for their artwork. The Lucky Store in Walnut Creek gladly donated 140 bags, so that each student grade 3-6 could decorate them. The teacher took photos on decoration day and a student volunteer dropped them off at the store when they were done. What an easy project! The students love to do art and it was a good way to remind them about Earth Day and its importance.
Patricia Lee
Little Harbour
Portsmouth N.H
Bags decorated: 345
Comments: We picked a grocery store that most kids shopped at in Portsmouth. The name of the store is Pic'n Pay. Mrs. Lee asked other teachers who were interested in decorating bags. Fifteen out of twenty-one teachers joined us in our project. Our fifth grade class brainstormed a list of slogans and shared them with all the other classes. The bags were AWESOME!
Missy Geraine
Winston Park elementary
Coconut Creek, Florida, Broward
Bags decorated: 1,200
Comments: This was a great project that allowed all of our students a chance to participate. The students had a great time. Our small local newspaper ran a story on the project. Everyone had a great time. Thanks for the great idea. Your site was very helpful. Great Job!!!!!! Everyone is excited and can't wait until next year.
Karen Cappone
Bethlehem Elementary School
Position: 5th grade teacher
Wheeling, WV, USA
Bags decorated: 135
Comments: A school-wide project was coordinated by our third grade teacher, Mrs. Holden, in conjunction with The Elm Terrace Supermarket. Students enjoyed creating a variety of grocery-bag art projects. Every grade participated and paraded for our photographer with pride. It was a wonderful project that promoted awareness of the fact that Earth Day should be every day.
Mary Frances Abel
Robert Hunter School
Flemington, NJ 08822 USA
Bags decorated: 400
We think that this is a wonderful project. This is our first year and it was an overwhelming success. 400 bags were decorated by children at Robert Hunter School in grades k-5. Bags were returned to the local grocery store which was very supportive on short notice. Feedback from teachers and students was very positive. We will certainly participate again next year. Thank you for a great idea!
Kathy Larkum
Squadron Line School
Simsbury, CT 06070
Bags decorated: 180
Comments: First and fourth grade book buddies had a wonderful time participating in the Earth Day Groceries Project. This is the second year that Alberta Culley and I had our students decorate bags. We were amazed to read the article in Science and Children, April 1999, because we had no idea the project was so global. Mrs. Culley was even more thrilled when vacationing in Maryland during spring break to visit a supermarket where she received a decorated bag for her purchase. I have proposed to make this a school wide project for next year. We would like to acknowledge Kane's and Fitgerald's supermarkets of Simsbury for participating in the project with us. Thanks again!
Mrs K. Pepe
Solvay Elementary School
Solvay, New York 13209
Bags decorated: 84
Patti Lloyd-Garrett
Littlejohn Discovery Club
Fair Oaks, CA. U.S.A.
Bags decorated: 62
Comments: My children had alot of fun doing their part to promote the importance of environmental conservation in our community. Their creativity was a joy to behold. Thanks, Patti
Joyce Miles
Stuart Elementary
Shelley, ID 83274
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: What a wonderful experience! It began with my class of 25 and was shortly expanded to include the entire student body of 500. My class took it on as a project: learning about Earth Day and environmental problems, decorating their own bags first as models, creating a presentation to all the other classes, distributing and collecting the bags, taking the bags to our local Albertsons to hang and distribute, and finally taking a tour of the grocery store. The store manager contacted a local TV station who covered the event in 2 parts: videoing in my classroom as the kids decorated and interviewing two of the students, and videoing some of the sacks as they were being used on Earth Day. They also taped the whole school leaving to collect garbage around the city on Earth Day. The kids learned and enjoyed the project very much. I'll plan to do it again next year!
Dawn Piazzi Crawford
Intermountain Childrens Home
Helena, MT 59601
Bags decorated: 200
Comments: We have approximately 40 students in our school and decorated 200 grocery bags. County Market donated the bags and passed them out to customers on Earth Day. We also passed out some grocery bags to our staff here and encouraged them to recycle!
Valerie Plain
Kitigan Zibi School
Maniwaki, Quebec, Canada
Bags decorated: 215
Comments: Our Librarian Jenny Tenasco saw your article posted in Science and Childre April 1999 issue. She passed it to the school staff from JK, K to Highschool. I was the Earth Day coordinator so I included this as a elementary wide project. Each grade participated even our community day care made some 40ish bags. It was successful. We took the bags to our community variety store where the bags were distributed. Our community is an Aboriginal First Nation community in a remote area. Our population is near 2000. Therefore, by taking the bags to the local store, our community members would received bags made by their children, grandchildren or neighbour's children. The children showed great pride to know their bags were going home with customers. It was a hit. However, a small glich was finding a store with brown paper bags that were not printed with a store logo. I know this might defeat the purpose but we bought the bags for our students to decorate. The cost was not great and the enjoyment was tremendous!
Frances Fink
Magnolia School
Brawley, California, USA
Bags decorated: 67
Comments: Magnolia School participated for the first time in 1999's Earth Day Groceries project. Our school decorated 67 bags which were donated by Von's Stores in Brawley. Many thanks to Von's managers for their help. Over half the students from Magnolia participated in the project, including all the third and fourth grade students. Our goal for the 2000 project is all-school participation.
Linda Slater
Escuela de Montessori
Los Angeles, CA 90045
Bags decorated: 50
Comments: This is the first year that our school has participated in this project. Our 4th graders decorated our bags from Ralphs and then we had a field trip to the store to deliver them on Monday, before Earthday. The manager greeted our class and our bags were put on display. Our students received more bags to decorate. We will ask our parents to use these bags when they go shopping so that they don't have to have new bags used each time they go. We will make some magnets for Mother's Day using this theme - Re-Use/Reduce/Recycle with a picture of the grocery bags - to remind our parents to re-use their grocery bags instead of getting new ones each time they go to the market.
Jennifer Warren
Moody Elementary School
Moody, Al
Bags decorated: 650
Comments: Thank you so much for sharing such a wonderful idea. Our entire school (K-3) participated in the project! The students were so excited when they went to the local Winn Dixie supermarket and saw their bags being used! What a wonderful way to share the message of Earth Day with the community!!!!
Andy Smith
Pine Crest School
Sebastopol,CA
Bags decorated: 27
Comments: I am a fourth-grader and I organized this project as part of my trimster project at school-"The Power of You". The idea is to find out how much one person can do to help the earth. I got all my classmates to help me with the grocery bags. We had fun coloring them.
Julie Lowell
St. Michael's School
Grade 4 Teacher
Berlin, NH 03570
150 bags distributed in our community The students at St. Michael's School in grades (pre-k - 8th) were happy to participate in the earth day bag it projects. The students decorated and sent out great earth day messages to the families in our community. I have attached some of the students work and we hope you enjoy!
I am a k-1 teacher at a first-year charter school in Teaneck, NJ. Our school decorated 88 bags for the Earth Day Groceries Project. The name of the school is Teaneck Community Charter School, 1650 Palisades Ave., Teaneck, New Jersey. The cooperating grocery store is Pathmark , 80 New Bridge Rd. , Bergenfield, NJ. Thank you for the opportunity to take part in a national project. We're proud to let others know that we care about the environment.
Sincerely,
Carol Herron
Hi, I'm Linda Doiron and I teach Kindergarten. I thought the grocery bag idea was great and wanted to let you know that 140 kids in our school took part in the project for Earth Day. The name of the store that worked with us is Shop'N Save in Rumford.
Sincerely,
Linda Doiron
Virginia School
740 Forest Avenue
Rumford, Maine 04278
Marji Romanski
The Walden School
Swarthmore, Pa.
Bags decorated: 200
Comments: The students decorated 200 bags this year and we took them to the local Co-op in Swarthmore. This is our third year, and the children were so excited about the idea of someone getting "their" bag filled with groceries! We had the entire school participate, from preprimary students through the eighth grade. This is a wonderful program and we look forward to next year!
Terrie M. Hauck
Osan American Elementary School
Osan Air Base Pyongtaek, S. Korea
Bags decorated: 531
Cheryl Poltrack
Rogers Magnet School
Stamford, CT
Bags decorated: 702
Ella
Lakeshore Elementary
San Francisco
Bags decorated: 700
Comments: My school decoated bags. It was a hit!
Katy Downs-Stroh
French Camp Elementary
French Camp, CA
Bags decorated: 275
Comments: It was an easy and greatly enjoyed project. Everyone wants to do it again next year. Hopefully we'll have more teachers participating.
Tami M. White
Monongahela Elementary Center
Monongahela, PA 15063 , USA
Bags decorated: 550
Comments: I actually got the whole school involved myself. The teachers thought it was a wonderful idea, and the students really enjoyed creating the bags. The local grocery store, Fisher Heights Giant Eagle, was the store that participated in the project with us. So many of our students made their parents go grocery shopping on Earth Day, just so they could get a decorated paper bag to use over and over again. We all loved participating in the project, and will certainly do it again next year!
Nelda Ward
Grove School
Shawnee, Ok USA
Bags decorated: 250
Comments: This was our first year to participate in the project, and we found it to be educational and fun. Our neighborhood Homeland store supplied and distributed our bags, and the manager offered an extra incentive--- gift certificates for the three bags judged to be most creative. We decorated bags in all grades (K-8) and are planning to do the project again next year.
Nancy D'Amico
Explorer Elementary School
Kentwood, MI
Bags decorated: 470
Comments: Our school participated for the first time in this project. D & W Food Centers graciously donated the bags for our students to decorate and return. Over 450 students participated, decorating over 470 grocery bags. Everyone enjoyed the project.
Lourene Walters
Thirkill Elementary School
Soda Springs, Idaho U,S,A,
Bags decorated: 300
Comments: Participating grocery stores:
1. Lew & Dans Thriftway
2. Lallatins Thriftway
Great project. Kids loved it, so did the teachers. We'll participate again next year.
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.
We decorated and distributed 500 bags at Top Foods and 100 bags at Safeway in Snohomish, Washington. We are Dutch Hill Elementary School and students K to 6 did the decorating. We even received notes from the community thanking us for reminding them of the event!
Judi Cowper
third grade
Debra Carte
Valley Elementary
Smithers, WV, USA
Bags decorated: 24
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.
I'm checking in to let you know I coordinated an Earthday Groceries Project in my entire 3 county area! I work for a small environmental group and we found it to be a great way to tell people about us, get them involved in Earth Day, and have a lot of fun!

It worked! We involved our local Publix Supermarkets who enthusiastically gave us 1600 bags to color (8 schools participated) and return for distribution on Earth Day. We also chose 3 "winning" bags and presented the winners with some prizes. This gained local news coverage!

The schools are so excited that I believe every school will want to participate next year and Publix wants to take it nationwide with their local folks!!

Look forward to hearing from you. This is a tremendous effort, and I thank you for putting it up for all of us to take advantage of.

Sincerely,
Susan Cain Giusto
Development Director
EcoSystems Institute
435 Telfair St.
Augusta, GA 30904

Forest Avenue School
Forest Avenue
Hudson, MA
Bags decorated: 73
Julie Meyer
Stanley Elementary
Environmental Club Sponsor
Wichita, Kansas
Bags decorated: 370+
Comments: Our Environmental Club sponsored the "Earth Day Grocery Sacks" program at our school. The entire school participated, and in all 370 bags were decorated. The bags were beautiful! When we delivered them to the local Dillons store, the management was so happy with them I could hardly believe it! On Earth Day, when they sacked their groceries with our wonderful bags, one customer even took the time to call our school and let the principal know how much the bag had meant to her. We were all very pleased! Thanks for sharing this wonderful idea with us. We will be sure to participate next year too!
Mary Wilson
City View First Grade
Wichita Falls, Tx USA
Bags decorated: 100
Comments: Bags were provided by United Grocery Stores. All first grade students decorated the bags and learned a lot about "Saving the Earth." We look forward to participating next year.
Wenonah Elementary School
Birmingham Public Schools
Birmingham, Alabama
decorated 531 grocery bags for Earth Day. Students in grades K-5 participated in the project.
Thank you for including us on your web site!
Wenonah Elem. Lib
Thurgood Marshall Middle School has participated in the Earth Day Groceries Project every year since 1995! This year, 361 bags were decorated by the 6th grade Reese/Aldridge and Ferguson/Debruyne teams, the 7th grade Reid/Bennett/Berstein team, the 8th grade Hoonan/West team, and the multiage McDougall/Havens team.
The bags were delivered to the Westside Olympia Safeway store. A special thanks goes to Safeway for supplying the bags each year.
Virginia Reid
Thurgood Marshall Middle School
Olympia, Washington
Our school is Chippewa Elementary School. We are located in Palos Heights, IL
Barbara Pour
Jessica Schurtman
Zuni Elementary Magnet School
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Bags decorated: 116
Comments: Our second grade class is involved in a school project about environmental responsibility. Second graders had to share ways to keep Albuquerque beautiful. We decided to spread the message by participating in the Earth Day Grocery Bag Project. Our little class of 19 students decorated 116 bags in one day! Some students even gave up their lunch and recess. We wrote messages about recycling, composting, not littering, carpooling and riding bikes to work. We also decorated some with birthday messages for the earth. We took the bags to Smith's Grocery Store and they were passed out to customers on Earth Day.
Ofelia Bautista- Ruiz
Hayes Bilingual school
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Bags decorated: 450
Comments: Kolhs Food Store lent our school the bags. The children loved the project. Sorry I just got around to submitting our participation. Bags were delivered on Earth Day.
Bronwyn Tongue
BAKER SCHOOL
BAKER,FLORIDA,USA
Bags decorated: 625
Comments: Hi, Bronwyn Tongue here. I'm a second grade teacher at Baker School. We have pre-kindergarten through 12th grade here. We decorated 625 grocery bags - all our elememtary students decorated a bag. Our High School art students judged the bags and picked a winner from each classroom (27 winners!!) Those students got the opportunity to walk to Kelley's Food Center here in Baker (about a four block walk) to deliver the bags on Wednesday. It was a lovely sunny Florida spring day and a drink awaited us at the end of our walk. Kelley's Food Center is displaying our winning grocery bags. We surfed the internet to find answers to questions about Earth Day. Our library read Earth Day stories during the week to students. We decorated our hallway bulletin boards with Earth Day themes. The Forestry Service provided every elementary student with a longleaf pine seedling. We really enjoyed Earth Day activities at Baker School this year.
Grace Lawson
Conneaut Elementary School
Bowling Green, Ohio
Bags decorated: 24
Comments: The kindergarten class enjoyed decorating the bags donated by the Bowling Green Kroger store. The pictures showed how to recycle, pick up litter and how to save energy and water. The children learned a great deal about taking care of the earth and were eager to share their new knowlegde with others.
Michelle Iwankow
Swett Home Middle School
Amherst, NY 14226 USA
Bags decorated: 1,000
Comments: The students really enjoyed doing this project. It made them more aware of what Earth Day is all about and they even suggested doing various other tasks to help our environment. We are looking forward to doing it next year!
The students at Boulder Country Day School in Boulder, Co., designed a total of 100 grocery bags. Albertson's was so kind to give the bags. Students designing the bags were Kindergarten - 5th graders. They turned out beautifully and taught shoppers an important message about Earth Day "99. Thanks for the project.
Kristin McLaurin -
Little, Boulder Country Day School
Boulder, Co.
Central Lee 4th Grade/ Mrs. Hassman
Central Lee
Donnellson, IA
Bags decorated: 20
Comments: We enjoyed decorating the bags. We hope the people that got our bags also got our "message".
Pat Cooney
Farmingville Elementary School
Ridgefield, Connecticut
Bags decorated: 364
Comments: We found your site while exploring the internet looking for ideas to celebrate Earth Day ! What a terrific idea. The class and I had a great time, we worked with our first grade buddies as well. Other teachers in our school were very happy to participate and all the children learned a lot about environmental awareness. We can't wait to do it next year.
Ms. Smith
Stockwell Place Elementary School
Bossier City, LA
Bags decorated: 44
Comments: Our class participated in the "Earth Day Groceries" Project. Roger and Russell Walker, of Walker Brothers Grocery in Haughton, Louisiana, donated 44 bags to the fifth grade in our school. We decorated the bags with Earth Day slogans and returned them to the store. The customers got a terrific treat when they bought groceries, and we got a good feeling from helping support Earth Day.
Wendy Harden
Redway Elementary School
Redway, CA
Bags decorated: 330
Comments: bags decorated by K-6 students for Shop Smart Store in Redway and Sentry Market in Garberville
Mrs. Virgen M. Acosta
Rosendo Matienzo Cintrón Community School
Sabana Grande, Puerto Rico
Bags decorated: 75
Comments: We have a small rural school with 138 students. I have guided for three years an enviromental club of Young Forest Rangers, who have been assisted by the Department of Natural Resources. We have developed activities which promote recycling, energy saving alternatives and create enviromental awareness of our planet Earth. When I told them about the Groceries Bag Project they were very enthusiastic and started to work right away. We contacted two local grocery stores who liked the idea and even provided us with bags. The students decorated them with beautiful drawings and messages and then took them back to the stores. Even students who accompanied their parents to the grocery stores where very excited about having their groceries packed in these special bags. We have been thinking of doing this all year round because every day is Earth-Day. Later on I will send pictures of my students in action.
Sincerely, Mrs. Virgen M. Acosta
Dianne Gentry
Rapid City Elementary, Kalkaska Public Schools
Rapid City, MI 49676
Bags decorated: 120
Beverly Weigel
St. John the Baptist School
Plymouth, WI, USA
Bags decorated: 500
Comments: A great project. The students were proud of their work.
Christine Griffith
Jefferson Elementary School
Norwalk, CT
Bags decorated: 500
jbrown@tvs.k12.oh.us
Twin Valley South Middle
W. Alex. ,Ohio
Bags decorated: 150
Comments: This was our first year to participate in this project. Millers IGA donated the bags and our seventh and eighth grade decorated them. We hope to involve other grades next year.
We returned this week from vacation so I appologize for the date of this message. We had participants from grades K-5 in our small rural school in upstate New York. I picked up the grocery bags for about 200 students ( we have about 350 ) and we painted, pasted pictures and drew the most wonderful scenes for Earth Day. Then I returned them to the local grocery store to be shared with the townspeople during the week of vacation which included Earth Day !
When we returned I had many students excitedly report they had not only gotten these unique materpieces but some had even managed to convince the cashier to look through all those bags and give them the one they created !
We had a great time doing a little research, a lot of talking and making these bags for the community. We certainly will look forward to participating in the future as this was our first year and it was a great success !
I did take several pictures of my class in the process and can send them via e-mail if my luck holds in the process. I'm new at this techie thing !
Thanks !!
Diana Holmblad
Remsen Central School
Remsen, NY
Jennifer Lamarr
Madawaska Elementary School
Madawaska, Maine, United States
Bags decorated: 120
Comments: At Madawaska Elementary, a school located in the tip of northern Maine,second, third, and fourth graders decorated about one hundred and twenty bags in order to celebrate and honor Earth Day. The students also constructed two informational posters for grocery shoppers to read. The posters explained the Earth Day project and the history of Earth Day. Madawaska Elementary also has an excellent French Emersion program; therefore, many of the students decorated their bags in French. The project provided students with a great hands on learning experience. The students learned the most important lesson of Earth Day, and that is to make a difference.
David Grossman
Murray Elementary School
Murray, Kentucky, USA
Bags decorated: 80
Comments: Our after school program decorated 80 bags, and we were very excited about helping remind others to clean up the Earth.
dtoomey
All Souls School
South San Francisco, Ca USA
Comments: 5th, 6th 7, and 8th decorated 400 bags for Lucky Store in San Bruno, Ca
Diana Holmblad
Remsen, NY USA
Bags decorated: 200
Comments: We had a great time joining all of you. I am trying to send pics but am hung up on the techie thing still - I haven't given up yet.
L. Heaston, T.Lukas, C.Williams, T. Reagan
Oak Elementary
Bags decorated: 84
Comments: This is the first time we had done this terrific project. All students decorated eighty-four bags. These bags were taken to Piggly Wiggly in Bartlett, Tenn.
Our school participated in the grocery bags project for the first time this year. The art teacher did the project with 1st and 2nd graders. We made 150 bags. They were distributed to Hannaford Market, Niskayuna , N.Y.
Sue Lucas
Hillside Elementary School
Niskayuna ,N.Y.
The children had a great time decorating the bags! Looking forward to next year!
Doreen Licursi
Northside Blodgett Middle School
Corning, New York
Bags decorated: 329
Happy Earth Day, 1999!

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