Schiesher Students Learn it is Easy to be Green

Youngsters love their juice boxes, but what happens to the empty ones?

Most of they go into a landfill, unless students at Schiesher Elementary School have anything to do with them. Since September, students at the 52o5 Kingston Ave. school have collected 1,600 boxes to add to the nearly 4,400 others collected since last school year. The collection is part of the school's Green Team efforts. The discarded juice boxes are handed over to Terracycle, which pays 2 cents per box.

The Green Team, a project of the Lisle Elementary Home & School Organization (LEHSO), has collected more than 4,390 juice pouches since the program started last school year. For more information on Terracycle, visit: http://www.terracycle.net/. 

And the race is on as students at Schiesher compete for the lowest weight in trash. Below is the difference in waste weight from October to December by grade, and in pounds.

In October, third-graders threw away 18.8 pounds of trash; in December they cut their waste to 11 pounds. Fourth-graders cut their waste from 17.4 pounds to 9.6 pounds. And the "biggest losers" were the fifth-graders, who cut their waste from 16 pounds to 7.6 pounds.                        

Did you know the plastic caps that you leave on bottles, detergent, peanut butter jars are not recyclable the same way as their containers? So, if you leave a cap on a bottle of water that you put in your recycling bin, it will end up in a landfill and not be recycled. All products must have the lid removed in order to be recycled. If you separate caps and drop off to the Dooleys, they will manage the packaging and shipment to the hair and skincare company Aveda to be recycled into new caps and bottles. It is disappointing to learn all the items put into recycling with lids or caps are not separated and therefore, not recycled. For more information on Aveda's responsible recycling efforts, visit : http://www.aveda.com/aboutaveda/caps.tmpl

Green Team honored

The Green Team received a Lisle Character Counts Alliance Pillar Award for its efforts in raising awareness of the importance of reduce, reuse and recycle and putting programs in place to support this earth-friendly movement. For more information on the Green Teams efforts, visit:  http://www.lehso.org/greenteam.html

Fund-raiser at Chick-fil-A

Kiss the cook and give him the night off! The LEHSO Restaurant Night committee announced the next fundraiser restaurant night to be held at Chick-fil-A, 301 E. Loop Rd.,  in Wheaton on Dec. 15. Just say the words "Lisle Lions" and 10 percent of the sales will be donated to the LEHSO for future programs. Patrons should put their printed receipt in a box noted "Spirit night."

Book sale receipts

Suzanne Trotter of the LEHSO Book Fair committee shared that more than $1,300 has been raised so far from the sales at both elementary schools. The book fair is a partnership with Scholastic Book Fair. It encourages "choice" in reading, which encourages students to read more.

Holiday cards

The LEHSO Helping Hands committee, led by Nicole Webb, is asking students to make cards for residents at Snow Valley Nursing & Rehabilitation and Villa St. Benedict Assisted Living Facility. This week, students came home with a blank sheet of cardstock to decorate and return to school no later than Dec. 15. "The goal is to put a smile on the face of a 'seasoned citizen' during this season of giving," Nicole Webb said.

Fun with ceramics

Ceramic Night, held at Lisle Senior High, hosted more than 65 families who painted more than 200 pieces. This event was not a fund-raiser but a fun night out. Those who attended learned that even if you aren't Rembrandt or Van Gogh, you can create a masterpiece to gift or keep. 

Next LEHSO meeting

LEHSO meetings are held at Schiesher Elementary. District 202 parents are welcome and encouraged to attend. It is a great way to learn all that LEHSO does to support the education community and how to get involved. Meetings are kid-friendly. The next monthly meeting will be held at 9:15 a.m. Feb. 9, 2011.

For more information about LEHSO, visit www.lehso.org