Clean Campus Competition 2008

And the Clean Campus Competition Winners are…

 The Clean Campus Competition is a friendly, city-wide competition focused on improving the appearance of our local campuses, while teaching students the importance of taking care of the environment. This year’s competition was the most exciting yet! The competition began with a record number of participants, a total of 26 schools. The participants included thirteen elementary schools, six middle schools, five high schools, and two private schools. This nearly triple increase in participation was due in large part to Keep Riverside Clean and Beautiful’s (KRCB) revision of the Clean Campus Competition program, which is now three-team approach at overall campus improvement and student education: the Clean Team, the Green Team, and the Garden Team.

 The new Clean Campus Competition encouraged students to form a Clean Team, a Green Team, or a Garden Team, or all three teams, to target specific issues on campus. The Clean Team was aimed at litter inventory and removal, as well as setting a goal to maintain cleanliness on campus. The Green Team was focused on recycling and recycling education. The Garden Team’s goal was to create or improve existing gardens and incorporate composting and education into the garden program. Each team was responsible for documenting the “before” and “after” success of their various projects, as well as completing a report from KRCB.

 All participating schools worked hard to improve their campuses, but four schools stood out above the rest as Clean Campus Competition winners. These schools are the 2008 Outstanding Clean Campuses: Elementary School Category and Overall Competition Winner: Magnolia Elementary; Middle School Category: Arizona Middle School; High School Category: Alvord High School; Private School Category: River Springs Charter School. Each of these winning schools went beyond the basics of the competition and truly became involved in the program.

 Alvord High School’s Science Club formed a Campus Cleanup committee, created composting projects, planted flowers and shrubs in walkways, and had both faculty and students participate in the Green Team.

Arizona Middle School’s Green Team placed recycling bins in every classroom and all over campus, and truly grasped the concept of reduce and recycle by making notepads from recycled paper for teacher and staff to use. The student council also formed a Clean Team and assigned groups to clean each area of campus, three times a week

 River Springs Charter School formed a Clean Team, a Green Team, and a Garden Team. The Garden Team was very creative and converted an old and previously neglected sand box into a vegetable and flower garden. The high school students of the charter school took on the task of educating the younger students and went to lower grade classrooms two times a month and taught about water wise gardening through story time and the programs of the Western Municipal Water District. The Green Team continued to recycle paper and plastic throughout the campus.

The Overall Competition winner, Magnolia Elementary School, formed all three teams to improve the campus. Going above and beyond the necessary requirements of each team, for Earth Day, the Clean Team renovated the bike rack area from plain metal to a beautiful green and white. The Green Team was creative with recycling and, while continuing to recycle paper in every classroom, the team sent flyers home asking parents to help recycle printer cartridges and cell phones. The money raised from their recycling efforts went to the school’s PTA program. To encourage recycling education, the librarian and vice principal read recycling books to the classrooms. The Garden Team prepared irrigation and created an entire garden, as well as arranged to have a guest speaker talk about composting and its usefulness in gardening. Magnolia Elementary School truly took the goals of the Clean Campus Competition to heart and made a tremendous difference, both on campus and in the young minds of their students.

 Congratulation to each of the winning schools and thank you for your participation in the 2008 Clean Campus Competition!

 KRCB would like to thank all schools who participated in the Clean Campus Competition: Abraham Lincoln High School, Alvord Alternative Education Center/Adult Education, Alvord High School, Amelia Earhart Middle School, Arizona Middle School, Arlanza Elementary School, Bryant Elementary School, Eagles Peak Charter School, Foothill Elementary School, Highland Elementary School, La Granada Elementary School, La Sierra High School, Loma Vista Middle School, Magnolia Elementary School, Mark Twain Elementary School, Martin Luther King High School, McAuliffe Elementary School, Montessori Academy School, Myra Linn Elementary School, Notre Dame High School, Orrenmaa Elementary School, Stokoe Elementary School, Twinhill Elementary School, University Heights Middle School, Valley View Elementary School, and Wells Middle School.

Resources for Teachers!

If your school is enrolled in the Clean Campus Competition, your teachers are eligible for several extremely useful resources. Some are available for loan, other are for you to keep! Check out the list below and see what you may be interested in!

 -  CleanSweep USA poster

 - Waste in Place lesson plans

 - Bill Nye the Science Guy—“Garbage” video

Graffiti Hurts video and lesson plan

-  Captain Erase Coloring Book (grades K-3 and 4-6) graffiti prevention

-  Recycle This! Rock ‘n’ Roll and Recycling video

-  Return to Sender video (littering behaviors)

- You Can Make Recycling Work coloring and activity books

-  Trees are Terrific video

-  Greening School Grounds (book)

-  School Recycling Guide

-  Adopt A Tree, Deciduous Tree Study Guide

-  Trees are Terrific workbook

- Roscoe’s Totally Recycled World game (cd)

-  Cycles for Science—Physics, Chemistry, Biology,
General/Earth Science, Community Volunteer Projects

-  Wartville Wizard, story book, Don Madden,
Aladdin Paperbacks, 1986

-  POPSI, TheDaughter of Mother Nature,
Geraldine B. Lewis, GBL & CLjr Publishing, 2004

-  Marcie, La Maravillosa Senorita Arbol:  Autobiografia,
Tree Musketeers, Inc., Worzalla Publishing, 2005

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