School honored for green work

"Earthina" and Gary Frazee honored Sisters Elementary School for its environmental efforts.

Sisters Elementary added extra greenery for the season by achieving the second level of Green School status -- Certificate of Merit.

Oregon Green Schools is a statewide waste prevention and recycling awards program to provide schools with assistance and recognize their environmental achievements. Thirteen other Deschutes County schools have become Green Schools since 1997.

On behalf of the City of Sisters, local Earth Hero "Earthina" presented the award to school recycling coordinator Kelly Powell. The Certificate of Merit Award is a wooden plaque decorated with the state of Oregon cut from a tin can and embossed with the Green School logo.

Powell received special thanks from Earthina's entourage: a salmon, a gorilla, and a toucan to thank Sisters Elementary students for the resources and habitat they saved as well as the air and water pollution they prevented through recycling, reusing, and reducing their waste.

Over the last year, Powell has been working with fourth and fifth graders to improve and expand the recycling program.

The students provide informative and motivational presentations in other classrooms and make posters to encourage the whole school to recycle.

Additionally, the students and staff work to reduce waste and save resources through double-sided copying, e-mailing, using both sides of the paper, reducing paper towel waste, using reusable cafeteria trays, and conserving energy and water.

For example, staff members are turning their computer monitors off at night and on weekends, which can save up to 100 watts an hour per computer.

"The students take great pride in our environmental programs," said Powell. "Some students are working with the PTA to make customized cloth shopping bags which will be sold locally."

Schools must meet specific waste prevention and recycling criteria to become a Green School. Other Deschutes County schools have also shown innovative ways to meet the program guidelines such as: creating a recycling video, plays, posters, and peer teaching; using fabric as background material instead of butcher paper; recycling everything they can; eliminating internal use of fluorescent paper, and creating a visual display of trees saved by recycling paper.