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OUR INITIATIVES |
It's always a good idea to set goals so you have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish. An initiative is the first step in achieving that final goal. It's also important to identify who your target audience is, so you can design your presentation with them in mind. Here are a list of our initiatives and the current status of each. |
Initiative 1, Phase 1: Get Monthly school PTO packet printed on both sides of paper Background: The school Parent Teacher Organization in our town is very active and sends home an information packet with each child at the beginning of each month. We recognized that it was printed on one side of the page. Goal: Have paper printed on both sides. have "Please Recycle" printed on front page, and have only 1 copy handed out to each family (eliminating sibling repeats). Initial Audience: Students - Propose idea to them and ask them to sign petition Second Audience: Hillside Elementary School Principal DaGiau and PTO President Grace Park Action: We wrote a petition which included our requests and an estimate of how much paper we would save (MATH comes in handy!). We presented our ideas to our classmates and collected signatures and then sat down with our principal and PTO president. As it turns out, the PTO had considered this a few years ago, but it was more costly at that time. We looked into the costs now and found that this change would save our PTO about $500/year for the elementary school alone! Status: DONE! |
Initiative 1, Phase 2: Have monthly PTO packet sent home via email. Audience: Parents of students in our district and PTO Status: Currently collecting signatures on our petitions. Initiative 2: Give weekly GREEN! tips at school via HNN (Hillside Network News, closed circuit morning announcements) Background: We have an amazing technology lab where 4th grade students produce, film and anchor the morning announcements broadcast daily to each classroom. A weekly GREEN! segment would reach all 600 students at once - an ideal way to spread our news, concerns, events and tips. Audience: Propose goal to Principal DaGiau, and our technology Specialist, Ms. Lewis for approval so we can reach our audience of k-4th grades Status: Approved and Ongoing as of March 4th, 2008! Subjects: * Compact Flourescent Light Bulbs * Aluminum Cans and recycling including a giant mural of 260 aluminum soda cans - the average number of cans used by Closter population every hour of every day * Phantom Power and cell phone/game/mp3 chargers * Being GREEN! definitions * Historic Garbage Game Show * Plastic Recycling Symbolology in Dr. Seuss rhyming stlye * Current Events Initiavtive 3: Decrease number of disposable water bottles that are used in school and in our parks daily. Audience: Schoolmates, parents, town residents Action: We wrote a letter to our PTO asking them to sponsor a reusable water bottle. They agreed for us to design the bottle, sell it at the PTO Spring Fair. Status: DONE, designed and on sale as of April 12, 2008. Proceeds will be used by the PTO for a GREEN! project at school. |
We are now saving paper at a rate of 43,200 sheets/year! |
Initiative 4: Work on a GREEN! project with Closter Nature Center (www.closternaturecenter.com) Action: We bought 18" Norwegian Spruce saplings in bulk and made our own wrappings for them out of recycled grocery bags. We spoke with the director of the Nature Center, the ultra cool Marc Gussen, telling him that we wanted to donate our profits. We discussed a few options for an eco project and made a plan. We sold the the saplings at a few town events, the Closter Earth Day Fair on April 5th and at The PTO Spring Fair on April 12th. Status: DONE, Sold Norwegian Spruce saplings and raised over $385! GREEN! will be working with the Nature Center to install a solar panel that will be used to power the aquariums and tanks for animals living at the Nature Center. |
Initiative 5: STOP the Idling! Backgound: Our town is small and has few buses; most students are driven to and picked up from school in the family car. The afternoon pick up is more problematic as cars arrive early to get parking spots and ignitions are left on, creating harmful fumes by our playground, and wasting fossil fuels. Audience: Parents and caretakers of students in Closter schools Second Audience: Parents and caretakers of students in schools of surrounding towns and counties, then statewide. Status: Preparing presentation for the our Board of Education. Initiative 6: Keeping our recreation fields clean. Background: Our town has won awards for its recreational programs and parks due to the hard work of our Recreation Parks Director, Jim Oettinger. We have programs in soccer, football, basketball, softball, baseball and a summer camp. As we all know, it's important to stay hydrated during exercise, so kids should bring something to drink with them when they play sports. It should be mandatory that everyone takes home what they bring to the field. We have empty plastic containers on the field or in the garbage (instead of recycling bins) after every practice and game. Action: We met with Jim Oettinger to discuss how we can increase the number of recycling bins and encourage recreation team members and parents to recycle their beverage bottles and to bring reusable containers. Status: In the process of a schoolwide project to raise money through chores to purchase more recycling bins (if kids earn them, they will use them) and educating students on the HNN closed- circuit program at school. Initiative 7: Hold a "no garbage" lunch day to see how we can reduce the lunchtime waste at school. Status: to be proposed at school. |
Johnny and Bryce with Closter Nature Center Director, Marc Gussen, April 13, 2008 |