Category: campaign

We’re so excited to share with you the winners of our 2020 Waste Campaign! These amazing student teams worked so hard on behalf of their environment in their communities.

Grand Prize Eco-Grant Winner – $1,000

Mary Bragg Elementary School  – Cerritos, California

This team consisted of fifty 4th and 5th graders who met before school to discuss solutions to reduce single-use water bottles in their community. They presented to their school’s PTA, in classrooms, and at school assemblies, and then took it even further by hosting beach clean-ups to spread awareness and provide a way for people to take action to help the environment. On top of these efforts, the team started an advocacy campaign that encouraged all their district’s elementary schools to have their own Green Teams to engage in environmental action. With their strong drive and organizational skills, the Bragg team was able to do this all of this before the “stay-at-home” order was enacted. While they weren’t able to present at their principal’s meeting due to their school closing, they were able to continue inspiring others virtually.

---

Best Elementary Impact – $500

Bryant Ranch Elementary Green Team – Yorba Linda, California

This team has been working incredibly hard, even after the stay at home order was implemented. This team addressed a unique plastic bag problem within their school since it was on their team’s required school supplies list. The team members, though young, asked for alternatives to plastic bags since it was not necessary and it would only contribute to waste.

---

Green Influencers Award – $500

HEAR Club from California Academy of Mathematics and Science High School  – Carson, California

The HEAR Club used their project to raise awareness of microplastics in synthetic clothing and the damage that they do to the environment. The team reached out to organizations that focused on microplastics reduction and conducted an interview with Grades of Green to further explain the issue, impacts, and potential solutions.

---

Campus Advocates Award – $250

Keller Dual Language Middle School – Long Beach, California

This team encouraged the head of nutrition services at their school to find alternatives to the single-use, plastic-wrapped sporks served alongside lunch in their school. Their goal was to prove that using reusable utensils as an alternative would be more efficient, more cost-effective, and most importantly, more environmentally friendly. They hope to make the environmentally-conscious changes permanent.

---

Campus Changemakers Award – $250

EarthSavers from Thomas Starr King Middle School – Los Angeles, California

This very motivated team of 8th graders were working on a pilot program to reduce the number of plastic utensils used at school. Their ultimate goal is to present their findings to their principal and advocate for ultimately replacing plastic utensils with a compostable option. When the Stay-at-Home order was put into place, the team continued their research to find alternatives for plastic utensils and single-use trays.

---

Most Inspirational Team Award – $250

Whittier Elementary School – Long Beach, California

Whittier Elementary focused on ways to reduce litter on their campus. They educated their school through videos about the harmful effects of litter and showcased how cleaning up was every student’s responsibility. They worked with their principal and teachers to set up “beautification zones” to clean up their school’s grounds.

---

Best Alumni Team – $250

Nathaniel Hawthorne Middle School 74 – Queens, New York

This team of 10 students has previously worked with Grades of Green on several Campaign projects. This semester, they continued to pursue water bottle waste reduction efforts at their own school before expanding their advocacy to nearby elementary schools. The team then focused on recycling markers at their school but switched their project to educating their community on reducing plastic usage after the stay-at-home-order was implemented.

---

International Changemakers Award – $500

University of Buea  – Buea, Cameroon

`This team in Cameroon advocated to their University administration to stop the open burning of trash on campus and encouraged their university body to seek out trash collection services and trash bin sites. During this process, they worked to create a university recycling program while educating younger students and siblings about waste issues occurring in their community. The team lead, Forbi Perise, recently spoke to the UN as part of the World Oceans Day global virtual event. Watch his presentation and panel discussion.

---

Student Recognition Awards

Best Student Leader – Samantha T, Mira Costa High School

---

Best Student Innovator – Sacha E, Granada Hills High School Habit Change Team 

Sacha E. is a student at Granada Hills Charter High school. He is interested in taking environmental action, because of the amount of waste and pollution in his community. The strong winds in the local neighborhoods constantly knock down trash cans and spill trash into the environment. Sasha’s project addresses this issue by using an innovative system of automatic electromagnetic locks that automatically secure trash cans if they are knocked over. This invention has been recognized as the most sustainable invention at the MIT EurekaFest. Sasha is also encouraging people to stop overfilling trashcans, so that trash can lids can be secured properly, further preventing litter in his community. His project demonstrates the power of innovative ideas and creative thinking when approaching environmental problems.

---

Adult Lead Award

Best Adult Lead – Sheri Sather, The Parallel Projects

Sheri sought to introduce her son, Justin, to other children around the world working to reduce plastics – and in 2019 they met Perise through social media.  Perise had collected over 8,000 thousand illegally dumped plastic bottles from around his hometown of Buea, and without any local recycling infrastructure Perise was looking for ideas on what to do with all the collected bottles.  Sheri and Justin spread the word about Perise’s situation, asking everyone they could for ideas. The two released a national call of action for solution.  Thus, Parallel Projects campaign was born. Sheri worked hard throughout the 2020 Waste Campaign ton continue sharing and implementing ideas from active environmental groups around the world.

We’re so excited to share with you the winners of our 2019 Water Campaign! These amazing student teams worked so hard on behalf of their environment and their communities.

Grand Prize Eco-Grant Winner – $1,000

Fisher Middle School – Los Gatos, California

The Fisher Green Team was able to accomplish its goals, and then some! Not only did they convince their classmates to reduce the use of single-use plastics, but they also got their school’s leadership to:

• Stop selling single-use plastic water bottles!
• Switch to reusable aluminum bottles
• Eliminate sales of Capri Sun, due to the attached straw and single-use container
• Support the new use of all compostable and sustainable serving trays in the cafeteria
• Switch from single-use plastic water bottle sales at after school events, to cardboard cartons of water
• Allow the Green Team to plan and implement new trash sorting stations campus-wide to help make sure their recyclables can be recycled

How did the Fisher team do all this? They put together a powerful campus-wide advocacy campaign to convince their fellow students, their administrators, and their school’s community to support their green initiatives.

Best Community Changemaker – $500

Mary Bragg Elementary School – Cerritos, California
We knew we had a very special team on our hands when the elementary students from Mary Bragg called out their school board for using single-use plastic bottles while the team pitched to them their plastic-reduction plan. These young students changed how their school community approached single-use plastics and convinced their school to reduce single-use plastics on campus and do a better job of recycling.

Runner Up: El Rancho Charter School – Anaheim, California

Best Innovative Idea – $500

Irvine SEVA Group – Irvine, California
The SEVA Group found a plastic problem that many green-leaning people overlook: plastic produce bags in the grocery store, which can easily be replaced with reusable versions. They met with their PTA and other members of their school community to convince them to go reusable and also did something unique! The SEVA group got their own reusable produce bags and went to a local store to hand them out and raise awareness of the issue. They’re currently in the middle of setting up another give-away event at another local grocery.

Runner Up: Magruder Middle School – Torrance, California

Best Impact by an Elementary School – $500

Seven Generations Charter School – Emmaus, Pennsylvania
These fourth graders worked hard to reduce the amount of single-use plastic, especially sandwich baggies, packed in their school’s lunches. They wanted to educate people in their school and community in an entertaining way, so they went above and beyond to make an extra “Family Feud” themed video to share their project. They also worked to provide easy access to sustainable alternatives to sandwich baggies by coming up with a proposal to the PTO to sell school-branded reusable snack pouches.

Runner Up: Innovation Academy – Oro Valley, Arizona

Best Grades of Green Alumni Team – $500

Airbender Team at Hughes Middle School – Long Beach, California
The Hughes Airbenders have been working with Grades of Green for a few years, and we’ve always been very impressed with their work. This year, their team did an excellent job of picking a specific target audience for their advocacy campaign. Their school’s physical education department had been a major place where students were using single-use plastic bottles. Among other tactics, they set up a competition to encourage students, coaches and teachers to use fewer plastic bottles and the change stuck!

Runner Up: Nathaniel Hawthorne Middle School – Bayside, New York

International Changemaker Award – $500

The Parallel Projects
We developed this new award as a means to recognize the teams that work to tackle the unique environmental challenges facing communities across the globe. For the Water Campaign, we wanted to specifically feature those who struggle with plastic pollution and access to clean water. The inaugural awardee was obvious: the Parallel Projects which is a collaboration between Justin S. and his mom, Sheri, and all of their friends in Africa – Perise, Maulid, Hudu, Rashid and others.

Most Impactful Adult Supporter

Pamela Weinstein
Will Rogers Middle School – Long Beach, California
Pam is a superstar! In addition to being an incredible educator, she’s dedicated to the environment and making sure her students develop powerful leadership skills. She makes sure that every semester her students have numerous opportunities to advocate for environmental change, both on campus and in the larger community.