APRIL 2012

RESIDENT COMMUNITY NEWS

REUSEO
REDUCE RECYCLE
Student environmentalism

duPont Middle School is very active in "green" student activities and won an award from the Keep Jacksonville Beautiful Commission for several projects including its Releafing at duPont Club. The club encourages citizenship through recy cling and gardening. The river is also a focus for many stu dents' conservation efforts. Last year, the St. Johns Riverkeeper awarded Susie E. Tolbert Elementary School Principal Kimberly Harrison a river advocacy award for "demonstrating outstanding leadership
for the St. Johns River and the natural

perfect shade of green

By Susanna P. Barton
. Resident Community News
It doesn't take an environmental scien

world by helping to initiate numerous envi ronmental awareness and education proj ects." Among those projects were: launch ing a partnership with St. Johns Riverkeeper and Rainforest Alliance fund ed by the Weaver Family Foundation to connect students to the river through Jill Cross, curriculum integration spe cialist at Ortega Elementary, explained how the students will learn about plants and how to help the environment. In addi tion to working in the school garden, the students will hopefully visit a farm and get seedling plants with community partner, The Veggie Bin. The Environmental Eagles at Hendricks Avenue Elementary School in San Marco landed a new paper recycle dumpster at the campus more than two years ago and invited students and the community to help fill it up. Students at Hendricks also rely on the Three R's as an important component of their classroom agenda.
Students at Landon Middle School and

tist to see how the neighborhood's small est sprouts are making our world a safer, healthier place. Through their schools' focus on recycling programs, gardening
and conservation, local students are mak

ing the environment a priority. An important part of second-grade cur riculum at Riverside Presbyterian Day School, explained communications direc tor Sam Hyde, is a section on "The Three R's." That's reducing, reusing and recy cling. The school has adopted a stretch of
Oak Street, and each month, a different

second grade class puts on their safety vests and gloves and trolls the sidewalk for trash. The school is celebrating Earth Day on April 5 with a primary focus on the
Three R's.

classroom programs, field trips and river cleanups; raising $2,000 to purchase 20
acres of Ecuadorian Rainforest; starting a "Green Champion" school recycling pro gram and brochure; creating raised garden beds to cultivate organic fruits and veg etable; initiating the Earthkeepers ambas sador program; and instituting a sustainability education unit.

Students at Ortega Elementary School share a similar passion for the environ ment. The school has started a first-grade museum unit called "Planting Seeds to
Grow Good Citizens."

many others around the neighborhood encourage "going green" by biking or walk ing to school instead of driving. Landon is one of the first schools in the country to get a Safe Routes to School Infrastructure Application Grant to improve conditions for riding and walking to school. Alfred I.