EarthSmart Grants Awarded to Local Schools
Six local schools will be reducing their waste and educating their students about it thanks to our annual EarthSmart Grants.
The goal of the EarthSmart grant program is to provide funding for schools to decrease their waste, conserve resources and educate students about waste reduction, recycling and conservation through innovative projects. Congratulations to our 2011 grant winners!
The Rimrock Expeditionary Alternative Learning Middle School (REALMS) students will use grant funds to build a compost area, an outdoor recycling center and satellite recycling stations around their new campus. The compost area will also serve as a repository for the green waste from the new school kitchen serving vegetarian meals to students and staff.
Chamberlain and Riverbend programs through Bend-LaPine serve special needs students who struggle in traditional classroom settings. Staff have found over the years that "experiential education, such as gardening as therapy, is very effective as a natural and non-threatening form of education. Many special needs students thrive when they are in contact with the natural environment." Students will be greening their facility by using grant funds to expand composting and vermiculture systems and begin vegetable gardening on site.
River Song School preschool will use grant funds to reduce the amount of waste generated from the school by increasing recycling in all classrooms and implementing a school-wide composting program. Their goals will be met by educating all staff and students of waste reduction efforts and integrating worm bin activities and planting a garden for hands on learning.
Bear Creek Elementary School will use grant funds to pay for transportation to continue their composting, garbage and recycling education from the cafeteria with field trips to Knott Landfill for all their students.
Mountain View High School's student Green Club want to make MVHS's recycling program more comprehensive and effective while earning funds to make their club more self-sufficient. Working with Life Skills students, the club will expand recycling into areas not currently covered with the purchase of containers with lids to specifically collect refundable recyclables.
Rosland Elementary School in La Pine , Bend's latest LEED certified green school, is embarking on a sustainable school curriculum that includes a reading to learn language arts component that enriches sustainable living concepts, as well as hands on components including a garden learning labratory and school wide composting. Grant funds will be used to purchase worm bin supplies and books for classroom use.
The EarthSmart grants are a project of The Environmental Center and are sponsored by Deschutes County Department of Solid Waste, Bend Garbage and Recycling, Cascade Disposal, High Country Disposal, Wilderness Garbage & Recycling, and Madras Sanitary Services.
