Auburn School District No. 408
915 4th Street Northeast, Auburn, WA  98002

3/25/08

NEWS RELEASE
Terminal Park Elementary School Teacher Named Recipient of
King County Executive Ron Sims' 2008 Earth Hero at School Award

Michael Martin, a fourth grade teacher at Terminal Park Elementary School in Auburn, was recently named a 2008 Earth Hero at School by the Office of King County Executive Ron Sims. Mr. Martin was nominated by his principal, Tim Carstens, for involving the school and empowering the students to take an active role in protecting the environment.

Mr. Martin’s fourth grade students formed the “Green Team” in response to their desire to cut down on waste after learning about the four words, “reuse, reduce, recycle and rethink,” at a King County Solid Waste Division school-wide assembly.

The Green Team, Terminal Park’s student-based recycling team, has created a school-wide paper recycling competition to increase students’ consciousness about the benefits of recycling. Recently each classroom was challenged to recycle all of its empty milk cartons. Over a short period of just one week, students were recycling over 2,000 milk cartons.

Mr. Martin helps to facilitate the program, from logistics to student presentations. The Green Team has introduced the concept of waste reduction to all students through individual classroom presentations. The Green Team is also responsible for checking in on all the classrooms to ensure students are using the paper reuse bins correctly and frequently. The Green Team members like to call these visits “surprise inspections.”

The Green Team also accepts and recycles plastic, like the student’s breakfast bags and grocery bags from home. Additionally, the Green Team started to compost food scraps using a worm bin, otherwise known as a vermicomposting box, which sits outside their classroom.

Ultimately, the Green Team wants every student to know and understand these concepts, helping to reshape the way students think about waste and the effects it has on the Earth.

Mr. Martin will be honored at the 2008 Earth Heroes at School award ceremony in April.

The Earth Heroes at School Program celebrates students, teachers, staff and volunteers who implement projects at their school or beyond to protect the environment. Each year outstanding individuals, groups and programs in the county are recognized.

For more information contact Amy Spence, public information officer, at (253) 931-4713.