This April 22 will mark the 40th anniversary of Earth Day and it's a great opportunity for your Environmental Education Committee and/or Club to lead the way for your school community. Here are a few program ideas, and I would love to hear other events that are out there. Earth Day will fall during the CRCT testing period, so events will need to be coordinated with your school's administration team and may need to be held on alternative days. Check out http://www.earthday.net/earthday2010 for some big picture info.

Shredding Event
Bob Karlinski from Shred2Go is a Cobb County parent and business owner who continues to support the community. Check out the flyer on a shred program for nonprofits. Bob's contact information is included.

Grounds Clean Up (School or nearby location)
The Great American Clean Up will begin March 1, so organizing a clean up/beautification event on your school grounds or at a nearby location will be a double dip! Keep Cobb Beautiful has grants available and the next application deadline is Wednesday, February 10, 2010.  Check out  http://kcb.cobbcountyga.gov/schoolprograms.htm for more info. Your PTA or EEC could donate a tree or flowering shrub to the school grounds.

River Clean Up (Probably more suitable for older students)
There are several websites that offer coordination of clean up activities:

• Rivers Alive: http://aesl.ces.uga.edu/aascd/RiversAlive/ra_cleanups.asp
• Upper Chattahoochee RiverKeeper: http://www.chattahoochee.org/cleanups.php
• Sierra Club – Centennial Group http://georgia.sierraclub.org/centennial/Clean_Water.htm

Reusable bags, Water bottles and other eco-items for sales
Combine with education to your school family on why these items make sense (plastics don't degrade, reducing waste, use of petroleum and energy to keep producing disposable). On a side note – I just finished "Bottlemania" by Elizabeth Royte – defintely worth the read.
Gale McTiernan, GJM Promotions, Koru Fundraising.com 404 202-5433
Kim Zemmali, icare Bags http://www.icarebags.com/ 404-271-5506Note: ECCC PTA is not endorsing these companies – just providing information.)

Seeds for Change
Click here to see flyer for information on seed cards. Can be a joint project with your Health & Nutrition Committee. The cards come grouped in a set of four, one for each season. The wholesale price is $8 a set, and schools are free to set their own price and margin. If you purchase enough quantity to cause the cost of production to go down, then the Mendez Foundation will extend the savings and lower the wholesale price even further. If anyone is interested in doing a bulk order so we can take advantage of this, please let me know your desired amount by January 25. Seth Freedman's contact info is 404-734-7144 and his email is sfreedman@mendezfoundation.org.

Nature Hike
A low-key event for elementary-age students. Make "bracelets" of masking tape and have students collect leaves, berries, buts, seeds, etc. from the outdoors. It's amazing what can be found on a playground!

Daily Events
Waste-free Lunch day, Walk and/or Ride the Bus to school day, wear green day, calculate your carbon footprint are events that you can sponsor each day of the week. Art show with recycled materials (Mt Bethel ES does a fantastic job with this in conjunction with America Recycles Day).

As you can see, there are lots of opportunities for your school to show your support of this important milestone and provide some education to your school family about the important role each of us play in safekeeping our natural environment. If you need additional contact information or have an idea that the rest of us can benefit from, please don't keep it to yourself!

The deadline for the Clean Water Essay Contest is September 25.

Middle school students living in the metro Atlanta area are encouraged to send in their water conservation and water pollution prevention essays for a chance to win $100. For contest information and guidelines, you can view the flyer and form at the following link: http://www.cleanwatercampaign.com/files/2009_Essay_Packet.pdf