Funds for green initiatives are available nationwide through governmental and independent organizations.  Since fiscal year 1994, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control has awarded more than $61 million in grants to assist state counties, municipalities, schools, colleges and universities with their recycling and reduction goals.  GoUpstate.com brings us this repost on how the students and faculty at Woodland Heights Elementary School put their piece of the pie to use:

Don’t throw a piece a paper in the trash can at Woodland Heights! The students here are serious about recycling. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control awarded the school a grant for $1,450 for educating students about environmental issues. A Green Team of students from each class, Kindergarten through fifth grade, is responsible for helping classmates remember to recycle paper, plastic, and aluminum cans. Recycling bins were purchased for every classroom and the students wear their Green Team t-shirts proudly on Fridays. Southern Paper Stock of Spartanburg provided rolling cans and picks up the paper to be recycled.

The Earth Day Celebration was a creative exploration of discovery. Woodland Heights teachers practice actively involving the students in the learning. They sang songs about recycling, painted pictures, made paper mache’ globes, and wrote about “What a Wonderful World” we live in. The fifth graders entertained their parents and the student body with a program that highlighted their recent three day field trip to Barrier Island.

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