Earth Week Give 2023
Redemption Stories
Luckiamute Valley Charter School - Bridgeport
“Our goal in creating a Blue Bag account for our elementary school was to be better at recycling and to raise funds to put in a new playground for our students. Our current equipment is small and outdated. Some of our equipment was obtained for a school that closed 15+ years ago, and the equipment was old then! Being a small school, we do not have a lot of funding for extra things like this, so any and all of our fundraising goes directly to this project.”
Students at the Luckiamute Valley Charter School-Bridgeport near Dallas, Falls City, Monmouth, and Independence are no strangers to the outdoors. Gardening class is once a week, PE classes are held outside every day, teachers move the classroom outdoors when weather permits, and students explore the nearby woods and fields whenever possible.
Luckiamute is a scrappy school. What it lacks in financial resources, it makes up for in tenacity and resourcefulness. As one example, the school “redeemed” some of its current playground equipment from a school that closed over 15 years ago. It was well-used when they got it, and it’s provided countless hours of entertainment since then, meaning it’s well-loved, but also well-worn.
Enter bottles and cans. As a way to teach students about recycling, engage the broader school community in a collective fundraising effort, and save up for new playground equipment, Luckiamute Valley Charter School-Bridgeport opened a Blue Bag account and got to work. Student volunteers go from class to class collecting bottles and cans for the effort, and parents drop off bags when dropping off and picking up their children. Some students even pack of their containers from home and bring them to school on the bus.
The container recycling effort sparked a broader environmental interest at Luckiamute, which now includes composting unused food for their garden program, and establishing a “share basket” for unwanted food at lunchtime to minimize food waste. Redeem the dime, ensure the highest and best recycling, spark an even broader interest in environmental sustainability, and save up for some shiny new playground equipment while they’re at it. That’s a pretty cool redemption story happening in small-town Oregon, and we’re excited to be part of it.
Would you like to be part of it too? You can donate funds from your Green Bag account to help support their efforts.
