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You Can Make A Difference

What on Earth Is the Earth Day Groceries Project?

The Earth Day Groceries Project is an easy, cost-free, environmental awareness project that teams up youth and grocers to protect our planet. The project is managed online by Mark Ahlness, a third grade teacher at Arbor Heights Elementary School in Seattle, Washington, and you may have read about it in Weekly Reader or Science & Children magazine. To participate, follow the instructions below.

1.Borrow Paper Bags.
Contact the manager of a local grocery store and explain that you want to take action to promote reuse and recycling in your community. Ask to borrow enough paper grocery bags so that each student can decorate at least one.

2.Decorate Paper Grocery Bags.
Students decorate the paper bags with colorful environmental messages, such as pictures of the earth or a favorite natural resource.

3.Deliver Paper Grocery Bag. 
Return the decorated bags to the grocery store. On Earth Day, April 22 of each year, customers receive their groceries—and the message that kids care about our environment—in the decorated bags.

4.Report Participation on the Web. 
Submit a brief report telling how many bags your school or club decorated, along with the name of the grocery store that provided the bags. Document your school’s commitment to the environment, and join the online community of thousands of schools worldwide who are doing their part to improve our environment.

You ’ve Made a Difference!

Thanks to thousands of environ-mentally-minded students, teachers and youth groups, the project is growing bigger every year. In 2000 more than 500,000 bags were decorated and since then, participation in the project has continued to soar. Each decorated bag is a reminder that kids care about and are doing their part to protect our planet.