Health & Fitness
District 64 Schools Boost “Green” Initiatives through Grants
$1,000 in awards to District 64 schools for environmental efforts
Park Ridge-Niles School District 64 has garnered more than $1,000 in grants to boost “green” initiatives at schools this year.
The Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County (SWANCC) awarded $200 grants to four District 64 elementary schools to help reduce waste and increase recycling:
- Carpenter School is equipping every classroom with at least one recycling bin and is providing larger bins for the hallways and art room. The school also purchased two large totes on wheels for the lunchroom.
- Field School is using its grant to boost the visibility of its recycling center. “We purchased signs to make our recycling center more noticeable and encourage families to drop off their ink cartridges, cell phones, batteries and eyeglasses for recycling,” according to Assistant Principal Katie Kelly. “We also purchased several reusable sandwich wrappers for raffle prizes to help publicize the center’s grand re-opening,” she added.
- Roosevelt School is using its grant to purchase paper shredders for the office area to reduce its total volume of recycled paper.
- Washington School purchased additional large recycling bins for the lunch program. “Our Green Team is very active at lunch and we are excited to expand our efforts by encouraging recycling and student mindfulness about trash,” according to Assistant Principal Jessica Hutchison.
In addition to these local grants, Lincoln Middle School has won a national grant valued at about $225 through Keep America Beautiful and The Coca-Cola Foundation. Lincoln will be adding five large, bottle-shaped plastic recycling containers around the school to encourage students to recycle more. Lincoln was one of 156 to capture a grant this spring in this competitive, nationwide program.
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Lincoln’s initiative sprang from a lunchtime “garbage audit" conducted by grade 7 science students of teacher Andy Duerkop to examine the trash collected during the lunch periods and discuss what could have been recycled instead of thrown away.
“Students thought that with more noticeable recycling containers, hopefully more kids and staff members would recycle their plastic and aluminum at lunchtime and throughout the day,” according to Lauren Maloney, Assistant Library Information Specialist, who assisted students in filing their online grant request.
