Jenna Scheller of Collinsville High, first place photograph in the PhotoVoice Competition.

EDWARDSVILLE — Madison County Green Schools Program is wrapping up its 29th year and recognizing students and schools for their achievements.

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Green Schools Coordinator Bailey Lutz said the annual program provides support, incentives and educational resources for new and ongoing environmental practices. She said the program is to serve residents, students and schools in development of healthy, safe and resource-efficient learning institutions.

“This program encourages education while saving energy, resources and money,” Lutz said. “Forty-three schools participated in the Green Schools Program during this school year, impacting more than 16,000 students.”

She said although the schools have face many obstacles due to COVID-19, the coordinators ate each enrolled schools continues their participation in the program and encouraged students to compete in many of the County-sponsored competitions and collections.

The Clean Air Bookmark Competition challenged kindergarten through 12th grade students to demonstrate the importance of clean air and its impact on living things- people, plants, and animals.

“There were more than 800 students across the county who designed bookmarks based on their grade’s theme and mailed them in for review by a panel of judges,” Lutz said.

The winners:

K through 2nd Grade:

· First Place — Millie McGrievy, C.A. Henning Elementary School in Troy

· Second Place — Addelynn Duncan, Highland Primary School

· Third Place — Lilyana Starks, Highland Primary School

3rd through 5th Grade:

· First Place — Reagan Dortch, Highland Elementary School

· Second Place — Sophia Muentnich, C.A. Henning Elementary School

· Third Place — Jacqueline Harrison, C.A. Henning Elementary School

6th through 8th Grade:

· First Place — Destiny Spears, Roxana Junior High School

· Second Place — Ariel Raymer, Roxana Junior High School

· Third Place — Autumn Hart, Roxana Junior High School

9th through 12th Grade:

· First Place —Jenna Scheller, Collinsville High School

The PhotoVoice Competition also challenged students to channel their creativity. Students were asked to document their community’s needs and resources through a photograph expressing their point of view on sustainability. The students’ photos were accompanied by a 4 to 5 sentence description.

Winners:

9th through 12th Grade:

· First Place— Jenna Scheller, photo titled “Drost Park”, freshman at Collinsville High School

· Second Place— Lillie Cuddeback, photo titled “The Underappreciated but Gorgeous Views”, freshman at Collinsville High School

· Third Place — Liam Pascoe, photo titled “Please Recycle”, freshman at Collinsville High School

The Fantastic Plastic Collection challenged students and staff of Madison County schools to collect plastic bags and stretchy plastic to be recycled. Although these materials are not accepted in single-stream recycling, they can be recycled when taken to participating retail stores and processed in a different way. At final count, five schools collected more than 733 pounds of stretchy plastic and plastic bags in this year's Fantastic Plastic Collection.

“Madison County would like to give a special to coordinators at each of the schools for working so hard to promote this program at their school and diverting this waste from landfills,” Lutz said.

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First Place — Trinity Lutheran School in Edwardsville, Diane Lasseigne

Second Place — Alhambra Primary School, Lindsey Kraus

Third Place — Evangelical School in Godfrey, Ashley Smith

Fourth Place — St. Jacob Elementary School, Theresa Sutton

Fifth Place — Highland Elementary School, Susie Brauns

Sixth Place — Central Intermediate School in Roxana, Terri Walker

In February, Green Seed Grants were awarded to 13 county schools for a variety of projects centered around schools becoming more resource-efficient by addressing either waste reduction or environmental education.

The schools that received grants and the projects:

Water Bottle Filling Stations

· Liberty Middle School in Edwardsville

· Trinity Lutheran School in Edwardsville

· Highland Primary School in Highland

· Alton Middle School in Alton

· Meadowbrook Intermediate School in Bethalto

· Dorris Intermediate School in Collinsville

· East Alton Wood River High School in Wood River

· North Elementary School in Alton

· Parkside Primary School in Bethalto

Outdoor Classroom

· East Elementary School in Alton

· St. Jacob Elementary in St. Jacob

· LeClaire Elementary in Edwardsville, with school garden

Tree Planting

· Alhambra Primary School in Alhambra

Lutz said that schools will work on their grant projects at their own pace for the 2020-2021 school year and Madison County is asking that everything be completed by October 2020.

“We are excited to see the finished projects and how these grant funds helped schools achieve their green goals,” Lutz said.

She said due to the suspension of in-school learning from COVID-19 for the remainder of the school year, the popular Trashformations Competition has been postponed until the fall. Additionally, a Hands-On Sustainability Training for Teachers workshop, planned in partnership with the Goshen Market and originally scheduled for April, is also postponed until the fall.

Lutz said the Madison County Green Schools Program looks forward to the upcoming school year and willing continuing work with community partners to increase program participation.

For more information on the Green Schools Program or to find out how your school can get involved, please contact Lutz at bnlutz@co.madison.il.us or 618-296-4606.

From left to right: Artwork from the first place clean air bookmark competition are Millie McGrievy, C.A. Henning Elementary School in Troy; Millie McGrievy, Destiny Spears, Roxana Junior High School; and Reagan Dortch, Highland Elementary School.

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