GREEN FLAG SCHOOL Douglass Alternative School

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VISUALS:      Great visuals – excited students will receive colorful Green Flag for their work.
 

Environmentally minded students win Green Flag
National award earned for expanding Wilmington school's recycling program

By MARY ALLEN
Staff reporter,
The News Journal
09/30/2003

Students at the Joseph H. Douglass Alternative School in Wilmington have started a new recycling
campaign through a national environmental program that will earn them a "Green Flag" award later
this month.

The Green Flag Program is a project of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, a Virginia-based
organization that advocates people's right to a clean and healthy environment regardless of their race
or economic standing.

The center launched the program this year and Douglass is one of only about 25 schools in the country
- and the only one in Delaware - with projects under way or in the works, said Paul Ruther, who coordinates
the program for the center.

The program encourages students to investigate topics related to environmental health and choose one
they can implement in their school. Reading teacher Abraham Jones said recycling was an easy choice,
when students decided they could improve upon the paper recycling already done at Douglass.

Since the start of the school year they have expanded the recycling program to include items such as
cans and bottles. Students and faculty are using converted wastebaskets or tubs brought from home
as receptacles for recyclables. A group of about 20 students collects the recyclables twice a week, and
Abraham drives them to a drop-off point near Christiana High School.

"They don't throw away anything now," Jones said. "They want to recycle everything in sight."

Students also want to start a program for recycling used computer ink cartridges, and they are
accepting used books from the community for recycling.

Principal Malvine Richard said the project has made its way into the curriculum. Douglass teachers
coordinate lessons around themes, so recycling is driving study topics in everything from science to reading.

Senior Irene Griggs said her art class was drawing pictures of the environment. Students are excited
about the program, she said.

"I decided I wanted to make a difference," classmate Arrin Pauls, 19, said. He joined the Green Flag
club and works collecting the recyclables. The school looks cleaner for everyone's efforts, he said.

Douglass is an alternative public school with about 90 students from first through 12th grades who had
difficulty in traditional school settings, Richard said.

Jones said the project has been implemented without any cost to the school. He hopes it grows and is
trying to get access to a school van so students can help transport the recyclables to the drop-off point.
Right now they do not accompany him.

Jones said the students would love to see a drop-off point for recyclables started at their school.

Ruther said Douglass is getting an environmental award simply for taking the initiative and being willing
to act as a pilot project in the Green Flag Program. The center provides help and counseling in getting
  projects started, he said. The goal is to encourage children to become environmentally aware.

Reach Mary Allen at 324-2794 or mallen@delawareonline.com.