With the help of several Grades of Green students,  Grades of Green celebrated Halloween early by co-hosting a booth with the Manhattan Beach Downtown Business and Professional Association at the Manhattan Beach Pumpkin Races. While competitors waited their turn to race their custom-built pumpkins down Manhattan Beach Blvd, Grades of Green students taught them how to reduce waste through a fun activity called veggie stamping. Grades of Green’s veggie stamping activity involves dipping scraps from veggies like onions, mushrooms, and tomatoes in an ink pad, and then stamping the beautiful and intricate designs onto trick-or-treat bags. Attendees also got to guess the weight of a giant pumpkin for the chance to win a free basket of delicious (and eco-friendly) Manhattan Beach Farmers Market produce!




Are you interested reducing waste in your community? Join Grades of Green’s Waste Campaign to research local waste issues, develop innovative solutions, and share those solutions with your school or community. Click here to sign up today! You can also check out this brochure about the program or watch this quick video to learn more!

According to a survey conducted in September by the National Retail Federation, the world’s largest retail trade association, American consumers were expected to spend $3.4 billion on costumes alone on Halloween 2017. The scariest part comes when you think of all the natural resources consumed and carbon dioxide emitted from producing the millions of costumes worn by both adults and children, some of which go straight to landfills after Halloween is over!

Although Halloween is over, it’s never too late to be eco-friendly. Next year instead of buying a newly produced costume, try checking out your local thrift shop or trade costumes with your friend. Grades of Green and National Charity League volunteers from the Manhattan-Hermosa chapter encouraged interested shoppers at Children’s Orchard to purchase used costumes while also educating them on how long it takes for items to decompose in a landfill.

Of course, it’s not Halloween without pumpkins. Grades of Green also attended the world-famous Manhattan Beach Pumpkin Races in honor of Halloween. Contestants lined up with their handcrafted pumpkin racers to see who would earn the Pumpkin Race Championship Trophy while Grades of Green hosted a veggie stamping booth to teach kids how to reuse veggie scraps and compost.

Do you and your friends have costumes you no longer want? Check out Grades of Green’s Costume Closet Activity to help your school community reuse its costumes. Do you have a pumpkin at home and don’t know what to do with it? Check out Grades of Green’s Campus Composting Activity to learn how you can use your leftover pumpkins to benefit your school or community.

At the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year, Metropolitan Water District provided a grant to Grades of Green which helped our Youth Corps Eco-Leaders install a native garden on campus to save water! You can read the Manhattan Beach Sun article about their garden by clicking here, or you  can view the PDF version here.




Interested in joining our Youth Corps Eco-Leadership Program and taking on an environmental activity of your own? Email us at info@gradesofgreen.org or call our office at (310) 607-0175 for more information! Applications for the 2017-2018 program are open until September 15, 2017.

Grades of Green wishes a very happy 11th anniversary to the Manhattan Beach Farmers Market! To celebrate, Grades of Green hosted a booth with our signature veggie stamping activity. Visitors were invited to create beautiful designs with veggie scraps while learning about the importance of reducing, reusing, recycling, and composting.

A few lucky attendees even got to meet Sam H., a Grades of Green Youth Corps Eco-Leader who is collecting used shoes at the Manhattan Beach Farmers Market all summer long! Sam wants to keep as many shoes out of landfills as possible by donating them to those in need of shoes. Since he began his shoe collection in 2011, Sam has collected over 17,000 pairs of shoes. At the 11th anniversary celebration alone, Sam was able to collect over 300 pairs of shoes! You can read more about Sam’s shoe collection as well as his goal of collecting 25,000 shoes by clicking here. If you have unwanted shoes you would like to donate, please place them in the designated shoe collection bins at the Manhattan Beach Farmers Market on Tuesdays from 11am to 5pm.

Can’t make it to the Farmers Market? Donate used shoes at Tabula Rasa in Manhattan Beach from July 14 – 16 and receive a discount on your purchase! Tabula Rasa is generously offering special discounts in the store, and the discount gets better and better the more pairs of shoes you donate. Learn more about this limited time offer by clicking here.

All shoe donations to Tabula Rasa and the Manhattan Beach Farmers Market will help Sam reach his goal of collecting 25,000 pairs of shoes and will ultimately go to those in need of shoes. Thank you to the Manhattan Beach Farmer’s Market and Tabula Rasa for supporting Sam in his quest to keep used shoes out of landfills!

Did you know over 300 million children in the world can’t afford shoes, yet millions of shoes are dumped into landfills each year? Sam H., a Grades of Green Youth Corps Eco-Leadership student, wanted to do something about this problem. Since 2011 when he first joined the Youth Corps, Sam has worked Grades of Green and Soles 4 Souls to collect used shoes and donate them to those in need. His goal is to collect 25,000 pairs of shoes before he starts college this fall and if he succeeds, he will earn a trip to Africa to visit those who benefited from his shoe collection. After six years of hard work, Sam managed to collect 17,000 pairs of shoes – and he only needs 8,000 more to reach his goal!

This summer Sam is partnering with Grades of Green and the Manhattan Beach Farmers Market for one final push to complete his goal, but we need your help! Please bring any unwanted used shoes to the designated collection bins located at the Manhattan Beach Farmers Market on Tuesdays from 11am – 5pm. These bins will be available all summer long, and all shoes will go to supporting Sam’s goal. Want to learn more about Sam’s shoe collection and play some fun and educational activities during your next visit to the Manhattan Beach Farmers Market? Be sure to visit the Grades of Green booth during the Manhattan Beach Farmers Market Anniversary on July 11th – we hope to see you there with your used shoes!

Want to take an an eco-activity like Sam? Click here to learn more about Grades of Green’s Youth Corps Eco-Leadership Program!

Manhattan Beach Middle School shared some great news with us lately! In a recent e-newsletter, MBMS celebrated the installation of a couple of water refill stations. Several passionate students organized the fundraising efforts, including Youth Corps student Sydney H. She ran 3 separate e-waste drives, where the e-waste collection company paid for the e-waste Sydney collected to be recycled properly. Thanks to the newly installed hydration stations, MBMS will do their part to forgo using single-use plastic water bottles, which contributes to 8 million tons of plastic waste that ends up polluting our oceans.

Do you want your school to cut back on single-use plastic water bottles? Taking on Grades of Green’s Water Refill Station activity will surely help your cause! A water refill station can be as simple and low-cost as an insulated water jug! To access downloadable resources (such as our hydration station signage that you can print out for your own station) and more, please register here.

Grades of Green celebrated Earth Day by attending the 25th annual Earth Day Celebration at Polliwog Park in Manhattan Beach! The event featured booths with aquarium touch tanks, soy candles, and just about everything in between. Thanks to volunteers from the Manhattan-Hermosa Chapter of the National Charity League and Youth Corps Eco-Leadership students Rylee G., Noah S. Carter C., Elise Y., Nadia W., Johanna J., guests at the Grades of Green booth had the chance to either spin the Grades of Green Jeopardy Wheel and learn fun facts about the environment or take a pledge to help the environment.

Youth Corps Eco-Leadership students were even invited to give presentations on the Eco-Education stage! Johanna J. spoke about her research on vegan diets and how they impact the environment, Emily H. spoke about the Green King and Queen competition she set up at her school, Nathalie A. spoke about her earth hour event, Nadia W. spoke about her lesson on ocean pollution, and Elise Y. spoke about her work on installing a native garden on campus. To top it all off, Grades of Green Youth Corps Eco-Leadership students Allie K., Elise Y., and Maxine F. even received Environmental Hero awards from V.O.I.C.E.! Interested in becoming an eco-leader? Click here to learn more about Grades of Green’s Youth Corps Eco-Leadership program. Interested in keeping the spirit of Earth Day going all year long? Click here to register and unlock Grades of Green’s 40+ Activities to see ways you can make your school community more green!

Spring 2017 Outreach Events Calendar:

SUNDAY, MARCH 5

Taste of Blue Zones @ Manhattan Beach Civic Plaza (Manhattan Beach)

SATURDAY, MARCH 11

LA Environmental Education Fair @ Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden (Arcadia)

SUNDAY, MARCH 12

Grades of Green Fundraiser @ Lush, Del Amo Fashion Center (Torrance)

SUNDAY, APRIL 2

Star Eco Station’s Children’s Earth Day @ Star Eco Station (Culver City)

SATURDAY, APRIL 8

LA County Sanitation District Earth Day @ LA County Sanitation District Main Office (Whittier)

SATURDAY, APRIL 8

Bixby Knolls Earth Day @ 3737 Long Beach Boulevard (Long Beach)

SATURDAY, APRIL 22

Manhattan Beach Earth Day @ Polliwog Park (Manhattan Beach)

*For more information, please email us at info@gradesofgreen.org!

Please help us welcome Susan Warshaw as the new Executive Director of Grades of Green! We are excited and honored to have Susan lead Grades of Green as we continue to change the course of the future by making environmental protection second-nature in young minds.

“I’m eager to lead the Grades of Green team as we inspire and empower more students around the nation and the world to care for the environment. From our start at one school just a short while ago, we are quickly expanding to meet the need for K-12 environmental education that brings students, parents and the larger school community together for sustainable results,” explains Warshaw.

Get to know Susan here and say come say hi at outreach events around Southern California.

Click here to view the release and share with others!

Interested in joining the Grades of Green staff, intern and volunteer team? Email info@gradesofgreen.org for more information.

Media Coverage:

My Social Good News

The Beach Reporter

The Easy Reader