25th anniversary for West Seattleite-founded Earth Day Groceries Project!

Coast to coast and around the world, the Earth Day Groceries Project is celebrating its 25th anniversary today. It was founded by now-retired teacher Mark Ahlness at Arbor Heights Elementary, where he and students posed with some of the bags they decorated in 2010:

Mark shared this year’s official news release with us:

On April 22, 2018, the Earth Day Groceries Project will celebrate its 25th anniversary. Starting out in 1994, with 43 schools participating, the activity has grown and brought together thousands of schools and millions of children and grocery store shoppers worldwide in an annual event on Earth Day.

Here’s how it works. School children decorate paper shopping bags from a local grocery store with inspirational Earth Day messages and artwork. The bags are then returned to the store, which uses them to bag groceries for shoppers on Earth Day, April 22. Students become teachers in their communities.

*“Thanks to Kroger…our students have the opportunity to do their part along with our school’s white paper and newspaper recycling program to show that they care about the environment” – S.L. Lewis Elementary, College Park, GA

*“Our efforts were written about in the local newspapers and carried on 3 local TV stations. The third graders were even proclaimed “Home Town Heroes.” – Kunkel Elementary, Middletown, PA

*“On the trip to deliver the bags back to the grocery store, we cleaned the neighborhood sidewalks and boulevards.” – Victory School, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

About the project website: At earthdaybags.org, interested schools can find information on how to participate, helpful tips, video presentations, desktop/phone backgrounds, award certificates, and more. Participating schools are asked to send in a report describing the effort at their school.

Visitors to the website can read through thousands of amazing stories and pictures from schools and children who care about the celebration of Earth Day. From all over the world. For the past 25 years.

We don’t have a list of local participants for this year so we don’t know if there are any local stores where you can get a special bag today, but thought you would want to know that a West Seattleite-founded project has continued going strong far beyond the peninsula.

3 Replies to "25th anniversary for West Seattleite-founded Earth Day Groceries Project!"

  • Mark Ahlness April 22, 2018 (3:35 pm)

    Thanks for the mention, WSB! I’ve not heard of local participation either, but who knows? The project has continued to spread and is ubiquitous in many areas of the country. The only way to really keep a handle on participation the past few years has been social media. The project Facebook page has links and pictures from all over the world right now: https://www.facebook.com/earthdaybags/

    Many thanks to all the students, teachers, and grocery stores that have made decorating grocery bags just one of those things you “do” for  April 22nd. Happy Earth Day! – Mark

  • ocean April 23, 2018 (8:42 am)

    Mr. A. !!

    Your project has spread around the world– friends in many countries are so delighted (and maybe a bit jealous) to know that we had *you* as a teacher!   

    Best,

    Your Formers

    P.S.- Did you know that the kids in the pic are now juniors in high school?

  • steve April 23, 2018 (9:45 am)

    It looks like we missed this year, but what a great project! Great to see everyone involved.  Heads up for next year!

Sorry, comment time is over.