The Captain Planet Foundation, an organization dedicated to funding educational programs that give students hands-on, project-driven learning experiences with real environmental outcomes, announced that Greene Hills School was recently awarded an Environmental Education Grant in the amount of $700. Greene-Hills School will use these funds towards Gator Recycling
“We are so impressed with the project brought to us by Greene Hills,” said Leesa Carter, executive director of the foundation, said in a press release from the foundation. “We are honored to play a part in funding its implementation and wish Greene Hills great success on this important project. It is our hope that our combined efforts to educate, empower, involve and invest in today’s youth will cultivate a better tomorrow for everyone.”
In the press materials, the foundation described the project:
“Greene-Hills is located in a business sector as well as the Pequabuck River Watershed area. It is an area where residents take great pride in. Greene-Hills will provide recycling barrels at various business and other strategic locations with posters identifying them as Gator Recycling receptacles with important recycling facts encouraging residents or customers to recycle their beverage containers. The program will also provide help is keeping Forestville and the neighborhoods Greene Hills School serves free from trash. Also Greene-Hills’ families will be given recyclable bags to collect their beverage containers and recycle them at the school where containers will be located. Families will also be asked to monitor their neighborhoods and collect trash from their surroundings and given forms to keep a record of what type and how many they have collected. Different levels of data will be analyzed appropriate to grade level abilities. Middle School students and their families will work on a spring clean-up of the area adjacent to the River and also record what type and how many of the different trash they collect. This effort is not just about encouraging recycling, and its effect on the environment, it is about bringing attention to other environmental issues such as using refillable water bottles and the health implication of sweetened drinks. It also gets children and their families outside and moving.
“The money collected will be used to fund and/or enrich school garden, nutrition and health programs, as well as sustains the recycling program, (for bags, gloves and other supplies).
“The data from the Gator Recycling program will be used to support the next generation science standards by providing educators the real-life data to design classroom learning experiences that stimulate students’ interests in science and prepares them for college, careers, and citizenship as well as see the impact of their work on their immediate environment.”
For more information, go to www.captainplanetfoundation.org.