134 schools province wide accepted the challenge to divert plastic bags from landfills. Here’s what some teachers had to say about the program:
“What a great project and our school really enjoyed it. It made us think about the use of plastic bags and our awareness is heightened for sure! Thanks for organizing this event.”
– Judi Wolfe, Pacific Junction School
“We are last year’s runner up winners and I am happy to say that our win must have motivated families to change their ways. We have only collected 2024 bags this year, a mere 20% from last year’s total. The most common comment I heard was, “We don’t use plastic bags anymore.””
– Annette Danis, Ecole Riverview School
“We started collecting at the beginning of October and collected 2067 bags. The students are really pumped and are going to collect all year until next October so the numbers should be great. The landfill will love us. Thanks for letting us participate.”
– Sharon Gillis, McCreary School
“Well, what a month! Our total is 9,719. Beyond anything I dreamed of. When we first started my prediction was maybe around the 3,000 mark. I suppose I underestimated the determination of our students and their families and friends from many different places. I will say this now, we’re the little school with the big heart. But more importantly, our students learned that recycling is a better alternative than throwing out. Thanks for a great way for teaching this! It was fun!”
– Linda Maendel, Brennan School, Newton
“We just completed our collection and we have over 3500 bags!! One of the boys in our classroom (grade 5/6) suggested having a bake sale and asking for five bags per cookie/slice, and that really did the trick. They were really pumped about the whole thing and some of the kids made short video clips to promote the collection and recycling of the bags. We had a blast! (almost forgot…one of my boys made a “recycling man” outfit out of boxes to be our mascot.)”
Brigitte Madder, Ecole Garden Grove School
“The roundup concluded on Friday, October 29th and my student counting committee was busy at work. The total of plastic bags collected and ready for pick up at Ecole Robert Browning is 4553. Thanks again for this great initiative-it got the kids talking and involved!”
– Pierre Bohemier, Ecole Robert-Browning
“Thanks for all of your help. I teach grade 2, and I incorporated the counting of the bags into a math lesson. The kids loved it.”
– Colleen Dooley, Holy Cross School
“Our total count came to 1879. I don’t think we’ll win the bench again this year, (we did last year), but I wanted to share a tidbit of information with you. We are a small school with very big hearts! As we worked on this project this year, one of our student representatives said, “if we win a bench again this year, we should give it away to someone who needs it!” (perhaps a local charity could put the bench to use.) I found this to be a profoundly thoughtful “pay it forward” comment and thought you may wish to know. I’m very proud that our students not only recycle to help our environment, but are able to see a world beyond their four walls.”
– Rone Boyko, Ecole Assiniboine
“Our school has collected 4584 plastic bags for the MMSM Bag Up Manitoba — Plastic Bag Roundup Challenge. We really enjoyed collecting the plastic bags because:
a) it was for a good cause
b) we were working as a class together
c) saving the environment and recycling
d) we had fun and
e) we now know what 1/2 of 10000 looks like ( our goal was to collect 10 000 bags — we made it halfway!!)
Thank you for the information and the opportunity to work with our class and school, work with you and working for Manitoba.”
– Grade 4 Students, Brock-Corydon School