By JOHN E. WEARE
Environmentalism and education intersect for Box Butte County students at their schools and in their communities, what I have referred to as Bulldog Green in regard to Alliance Public Schools. This past Friday, my son chose what he said was just the right t-shirt in preparation for a litter pickup at Dirty Pop with his fourth grade class. Spring outings to bag trash continue to be a popular choice though youth, teachers, staff and administrators put what they learn about the environment into practice throughout the academic year. Keep Alliance Beautiful Education Coordinator Carlie Foster instills the importance of recycling in ways that enhance classroom curriculum.
Area schools undoubtedly incorporate a range of “green” classroom assignments. Typically, things appear on my radar when we are involved at the KAB Recycling Center. Ross (an APS bus driver), with a high school student or two in tow, delivers cardboard and white paper daily, for instance. We collect at St. Agnes Academy, every week from the kitchen then arrive at least once a month so the eighth graders can load recyclables from the rest of the building. Alliance High School’s student council gathered (primarily) aluminum cans and plastic bottles and a dozen of the National Honor Society members visited the center to clean up around the building and sort curbside bags. Most recently, I led a tour of the center for a group of 22 first graders from Hemingford who were enjoying a recycling-themed field trip.
My crew also heard about our education efforts, whether unloading what the recycling “monsters” ate or collecting plastic bottles for a craft. Carlie reviewed her first school year with KAB last week as we met before she left to play recycling-themed Minute To Win It games saying it went well. “I love kids have a face to go with recycling.”
Considering changes for 2024-25, Carlie wants to transition from teaching processes to applying what the children have learned. “I want to do better about branching out and doing things that really help the Earth,” she said. “Overall, I’m excited about what I did. A big thanks to the teachers and administrators who allowed me to come in and take up instructional time.”
2023-24 KAB Education Timeline
September – Healthy Kids Day at the ARC: recycling relay with grabbers to get pieces into the right bin. Black Ops began for third graders at Grandview (five classrooms) and SAA (one). Carlie hopes to add a classroom at IELS next year and would like to include Hemingford.
October – Monster recycling at Emerson’s four second-grade classrooms. “Probably the biggest thing (I did this year),” she said. Halloween toilet roll center crafts: Emerson first graders made spiders and ghosts.
November – America Recycles Day: a scavenger hunt open to all Alliance and Hemingford students. Participants collected five different items and entered a drawing that yielded 14 winners of $25 cash or selected toys. Reuse Relay at the ARC: Carlie taped large boxes together and the children rolled in them down the gym floor like hamsters.
January – AMS sixth grade cardboard Picasso: Cut out pieces and layered, stacked, glued and painted.
February – Valentine’s Day boxes: collaborated with Cynthia at the Alliance Public Library. Globe Craft: IELS, Kiddie Kampus and Honey Bear students painted an imprint of their hand like a globe and wrote “You mean the world to me.”
March – Calendar Contest: Met with students to encourage submission of entries of artwork for the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy’s 2025 calendar. The schools responded with 300-400 entries. Carlie also made a xylophone after AMS donated used PVC pipes. The instrument is now part of the playground at Emerson Elementary School.
May – Minute to Win It games for K-5 students. Black Ops: Carlie presented graduates of the program t-shirts upon completion of the last mission: cleaning up their playground together.