CHS wins $20,000 in sustainability contest
June 29, 2009 3:30 PM
Corvallis High School has been named "America's Most Eco-Friendly School" in the Walmart “Earth Day Every Day School Challenge” and will receive a $20,000 grand prize.
CHS was one of 20 finalists out of 439 schools across the country that participated in the essay contest designed to highlight how “small, every day changes can make a big difference to the environment.” The 20 schools competing for the grand prize also submitted a short video showcasing the environmental projects described in their essays.
The essays and videos were posted at www.earthdayeverydaychallenge.com and from June 9-19, Americans were asked to vote for the school they believed should be awarded the grand prize. More than 22,000 online votes were cast with CHS coming out on top. The four schools receiving the next highest number of votes were East Burke High School (Connelly Springs, N.C.), Maple Avenue Elementary School (Claremont, N.H.), Beverly Elementary School (Beverly Hills, Mich.) and Old Trail School (Bath, Ohio).
“I am absolutely thrilled that Corvallis High School has won the grand prize,” said Colleen Works who teaches the Political Action Workshop class that entered the contest on behalf of the school. “The grant is a huge affirmation to the CHS students and staff, and the Corvallis community, that their efforts to ‘go green’ are rewarded.”
The students’ winning essay described a number of green practices at CHS including the Green Club’s campaign to encourage students to use carbon neutral transportation and the recycling program managed by the Leadership Class. The new high school also has a LEED gold certification rating and it consumes 30 percent less energy than every other school built to the Oregon Code. The school offers several environmentally-focused classes: Economics of Conscious Consumption, AP Biology (with a bio-diesel capstone project) and AP Environmental Science.
Once the $20,000 prize money is awarded, the students plan to install solar panels on the school with a goal of providing 100 kilowatts of power in the next 10 years.
