Green Apple Day of Service promotes awareness and school improvements

Green Apple Day of Service, organized by the Center for Green Schools, is an opportunity to transform all schools into healthy, safe and productive learning environments through local service events. Since, 2012, more than 750,000 volunteers in 73 countries have had an impact on the learning environments of 7 million students and teacher around the world. While September 24th is the main Green Apple Day of Service, events take place throughout September and October.

So how did LPS participate? Several schools registered an event this year. At Sheridan Elementary, student volunteers from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln spent the day helping with the fall cleanup of the school grounds. This cleanup day helped with maintenance of the garden area and prepared the outdoor classroom for an all-day student event. Kloefkorn Elementary students and families took part in a Nature Day at the nearby Mendoza Park where they could participate in several interactive nature exhibits! Exhibitors included Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, Nebraska Forest Service, UNL Wildlife Club, and many more.

Riley Elementary put together an entire day of activities focused on water and recycling. Each grade level was able to spend 35 minutes learning about the importance of water conservation, water use and how to conserve at home, how rain barrels work, and how to sort recyclable materials in their classroom. They even invited a guest speaker to discuss water issues. Ed Kouma, a retired engineer from the City of Lincoln Watershed Management Division, provided an interactive demonstration for students to see the movement for water runoff and how pollutants are transported in water. The recycling sorting activities served as the kick-off event for recycling awareness at Riley, and they plan to carry on that momentum with other activities throughout the year. 

 

Updated March 14, 2024