2002 Golden Apple Awards Winners
The NYC Department of Sanitation’s 2002 Golden Apple Awards program included the following three school contests.
• TrashMasters! Reduce & Reuse Challenge: Rewards winning schools for implementing the most successful and innovative waste prevention practices.
• TrashMasters! Super Recyclers: Recognizes schools that have implemented model school recycling programs.
• TrashMasters! Team Up to Clean Up: Acknowledges schools exhibiting the most extensive and original neighborhood cleanup projects.
The Department of Sanitation gave prizes for Citywide Winner ($10,000 each), Borough Winner ($5,000 each), and Borough Runners-Up ($2,500 each) to the schools with the highest scores in each grade division—Elementary, Intermediate, and High School. Please note that award levels change year to year based on available funding.
In addition to the three contests listed above, the Department of Sanitation also presented a TrashMasters! Award ($1,000) for best use of the NYC Teachers’ RRResource Kit: RRR You Ready?
Submission requirements called for schools to present their students’ efforts in a binder with essays, photos, drawings, and other documentation. A judging committee for each contest reviewed all the binders and assigned each a score. To be eligible for awards, schools had to meet minimum score requirements; some categories did not produce a winner.
The winners for each contest are listed below; the citywide winners are in bold.
Most innovative waste prevention practices
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS DIVISION
Brooklyn Borough Winner
• The Walter A. Kassenbrock School / PS 185
Tree of Hope with seasonal decorations: built through creative use of materials usually considered trash; student essays and computer-drawn posters.
Brooklyn Borough Runner-Up
• Emma Johnston School / PS 241
Garbage to treasure: reuse items from cafeteria, paint foam trays and equip as desk organizers; wash, decorate, and fill empty milk pint cartons as planters. Donate to seniors at local nursing home. Also student poster contest, Recycling Team instructs classes to recycle.
Manhattan Borough Winner
• Manhattan New School / PS 290
Paper reduction campaign: raise awareness of paper waste, conduct waste assessment of each classroom, collect reusable paper, reuse materials in art projects, make recycled paper.
Manhattan Borough Runner-Up
• Bea Fuller Rodgers School / PS 528
Recycled orchestra: student essays on impact of reuse, collaboratively write “Triple R Rap”, construct instruments from ‘useless’ objects.
Queens Borough & Citywide Winner
• David Porter School / PS 94
Cozy Comfort Project: paper is precious — collect and shred waste paper to make pillows and draft stopper ‘snakes’ from reused textiles; run a self-sustaining business, set up local homeless shelter in business.
Queens Borough Runner-Up
• Fresh Meadow School / PS 173
Stuff Exchange: 142 students traded unwanted items; students draw and display posters; write about reducing waste in a variety of genres including essays, poems, word games, dramatic script, songs.
Staten Island Borough Winner
• The Graniteville School / PS 22
Waste reduction campaigns: community drives to collect and donate used cell phones and eyeglasses; survey teachers and terminate unused newspaper subscriptions, calculate total paper saved at 1800 newspapers (6 trees) annually.
Staten Island Borough Runner-Up
• Sacred Heart School
Book exchange: coordinate school -wide book trade, track and tally quantities each classroom contributes, donate leftovers to class libraries.
INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLS DIVISION
Manhattan Borough & Citywide Winner
• Our Lady Queen of Martyrs
Composting cafeteria waste: weigh and measure waste, compare rate of decomposition between worm bin and composter, chart and graph results.
Queens Borough Winner
• P 233 @ IS 827
Paper reduction and composting (Special Ed school): collect white paper and newspapers, make recycled paper, paper flowerpots, pads, art materials; compost cafeteria waste in wormbin.
HIGH SCHOOLS DIVISION
Brooklyn Borough Winner
• Erasmus Hall Campus HS for Science and Math
Waste reduction and anti-litter: collect and reuse plastic juice bottles (rarely recycled) for planters; student essays on reuse.
Queens Borough & Citywide Winner
• Beach Channel High School / P 233
Paper reduction and composting (Special Ed school): collect white paper and newspapers, make recycled paper, paper flowerpots, pads, art materials, pet bedding; compost cafeteria waste in wormbin.
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Outstanding recycling programs with school-wide involvement and support
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS DIVISION
Brooklyn Borough Winner
• The Monitor School / PS 110
Manhattan Borough & Citywide Winner
• Bea Fuller Rodgers School / PS 528
Manhattan Borough Runner-Up
• Manhattan New School / PS 290
Queens Borough Winner
• David Porter School / PS 94
HIGH SCHOOLS DIVISION
Manhattan Honorable Mention
• High School for Environmental Studies
Bronx Honorable Mention
• Bronx High School of Science
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Cleanup and beautification of schools and communities
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS DIVISION
Brooklyn Borough Winner
• Benson Elementary School / PS 200
NEAT (Neighborhood Environmental Awareness Team): research and solve causes of pollution in community and school; upper classes develop and teach mini-lessons and games to younger grades; letter writing campaign to local companies to halt fliers and prevent litter.
Queens Borough & Citywide Winner
• Alexander Graham Bell School / PS 205
Five school gardens: WTC Memorial daffodil garden, organic foods gardens, flower gardens; compost; donate surplus food to community shelters; science applications include: raise and release beneficial insects, observation, and measurement; student essays, poems, drawings. For their planned Monet Garden, the school also received a certificate of appreciation from The New York Restoration Project.
Queens Borough Runner-Up
• The Chris Galas School / PS 47
Memorial Garden Project: interdisciplinary activities incorporate math and hands-on science in measuring, calculating usage plan, charting growth; student essays and drawings; community dedication ceremony and Wall of Hope display.
Staten Island Borough Winner
• The Graniteville School / PS 22
Conference House Park cleanup: school-wide cleanup of site of Peace Conference on Sept. 11, 1776; student essays on preserving Park and effects on animal habitats; re-associate Sept. 11 date with historic events in other years; create musical and dramatic performance piece.
INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLS DIVISION
Bronx Borough & Citywide Winner
• James M. Kieran School / PS 123
Schoolyard beautification project: prevent graffiti through ongoing school-wide collaborative wall murals; anti-litter poster campaign; spring cleanup; flower planting. This entry demonstrates the entire school’s transformation to an attitude of pride and cooperation through Team Up to Clean Up.
Manhattan Borough Winner
• Our Lady Queen of Martyrs
Neighborhood cleanup projects: teams of students choose, execute, and report on cleanup and graffiti-removal achievements in Ft. Tryon Park, Cloisters, and neighborhood sites; students teach recycling and environmental awareness to area elementary schools.
Queens Borough Winner
• The Chris Galas School / IS 47
Memorial Garden Project: interdisciplinary activities incorporate math and hands-on science in measuring, calculating usage plan, charting growth; student essays and drawings; community dedication ceremony and Wall of Hope display.
HIGH SCHOOLS DIVISION
Manhattan Borough Winner
• Louis D. Brandeis High School
Community garden and tree pit cleanups: Evergreen House students clean up and plant in Community Garden; clean up and plant flowers in tree pits near school and local Police station; include math, science, and horticultural studies; donate produce to local soup kitchen.
Staten Island Borough & Citywide Winner
• Port Richmond High School
Trashbusters: cleanup in Clove Lakes Park; plant daffodils; adopt and maintain a Greenstreet; ongoing monthly removal of graffiti and litter from school and local community; poster project; ESL essays.
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TrashMasters! Award
• Manhattan New School / PS 290
For utilizing the materials and projects available in the NYC Teachers RRResource Kit in an exemplary manner, by executing a wide variety of projects following the New Standards.
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