Gill Elementary Finds Its Footprint

It started with an idea that 4th grader Luke Brasko brought to his teacher, Christine Wilson.

Now the Farmington school is among six from around the country competing in National Geographic's "Find Your Footprint" contest. Prizes include five ActivBoard, interactive whiteboards and five sets of 32 ActivExpressions, learner response systems by Promethean; and a National Geographic library. Schools submitted a picture, poster, essay or video explaining their best idea to save energy, save water or reduce waste.

Wilson brought the idea to principal Mark Morawski; he, in turn, contacted parent Gina Adams-Levy, who was already working with students to make the school more "green." After analyzing the school's waste, she said, "We put together the waste-free Friday idea."

The school had already expanded its recycling and waste reduction efforts, she said. "However, if you go into an elementary school cafeteria, there is still a tremendous amount of waste. We could recycle, but there's still a lot of energy that goes into that process."

On Fridays, students are encouraged to reduce the amount of waste they generate, by bringing their lunch in re-usable containers, for example. For the competition, they created a video that includes a song written by Adams-Levy, who is the founder of Peace, Love & Planet, a non-profit that works to make kids more aware about the environment.

The video was entered in December, and in January, the finalists were selected. Then, it was time to start putting the plan into action.

"The kids put together a waste-free assembly," Adams-Levy said. "They showed the video, and 20 kids put a sketch together."

The performers wanted to give their audience a closer look at what's inside a garbage bag, so each dressed up as a piece of trash. "Some of the costumes were really cute," Adams-Levy said.

Now, everyone is focused on collecting votes for the competition. As of this writing, Gill was in fourth place. But more importantly, Waste-Free Fridays appears to be working. Students generate two fewer bags of lunchroom trash on Fridays, Adams-Levy said.

She has also heard from other schools interested in setting up a similar program.

"That's what's exciting, is that we can, as a district, make some real progress," Adams-Levy said.

Of course, it would also be exciting for Gill to win the grand prize. So don't forget to vote.