Past poster and writing contest winners

We've now got all the past posters and writing contest winners up on our website. The poster contest began in 1980 and the writing contest began in 2007. Click here to view them all:

Past Poster/Writing Contest winners page

2013 Green Up Poster Design and Writing Contest winners!

Congratulations to Aurora Brush, Grade 10, Montpelier High School, whose artwork was chosen to be the official poster for Green Up Day 2013!

Her art teacher is Barbara Austin-Hutchins. Congratulations Barbara!

Congratulations to our Grade category poster design winners:

Isabella Sepulveda-Muniz, Grade 2, Blue Mt. Union School, teacher: El Towle

Charlotte Brace, Grade 8, Main Street School, teacher: Rhonda Brace

Ally Puffer, Grade 12, Blue Mt. Union School, teacher: El Towle

Congratulations to Fin Richards, Grade 4, Stowe Elementary School, whose writing entry was chosen to as the 2013 Writing Contest winner! Here is Fin's winning poem:

Green Up Today!

It is a fine and peaceful day in the Green Mountains,

Wind blowing, trees rustling, rivers flowing gently

Into water falls.

“What could possibly be wrong?” says the tree to the river.

“I am clogged with trash,” babbled the river to the tree.

But the tree bent and swayed,

Whispering, “It’s Green Up Day…

They’ll come right now.”

The river sighed and sparkled on.

And once again in the Green Mountains the wind blew,

The trees rustled, and the rivers flowed gently

into the water falls.

An honorable mention goes out to:

Bradley Myers

Mount Anthony Union High School, Grade 11

Teacher: Jim Cross

Here is Bradley's poem:

What Green Up Means to Me

Green Up means keeping our state nice and clean,

Keeping the litter off the ground and the grass green,

And plastic off the ground and trash out of the lakes and streams.

Green Up means keeping the fields, roads, and woods garbage free,

It means using less paper and planting a new tree,

And creating less pollution and making it safer for the birds and the bees.

Green Up means recycling and working together as a team,

In order to keep our environment ecofriendly safe and green

It means keeping plastic out of our landfill,

And polluting less so we can bring back those Vermont winter chills

Green Up means using our resources and not allowing them to go to waste,

So let’s work together as a team and not make haste.

Let’s go out there and clean up and make this state right,

We will make the state spotless, even if it means working all night.

Rozalia Project for a Clean Vermont October clean up

There is one more clean up this season, and they are looking for volunteers:

Rozalia Project for a Clean Vermont: Volunteer Marine Debris Cleanup!

Clean Up Location: Shoreline naturalized area north of Starr Farm Dog Park, and South of North Cove.

Date: October the 20th

Between: 10:00am-12:00pm

Please join us Saturday, October the 20th between 10:00am-12:00pm for a marine debris clean up!

The Rozalia Project will be hosting an open volunteer day for anyone who would like to come help cleanup Vermont’s shores and waterways. Along with the cleanup we will be cataloging the debris we collect.  Our volunteer efforts are compiled with other data from around the State contributing to a large marine debris study.  This event is appropriate for individuals, groups, and families. Volunteers should dress for the weather, bring gloves and wear sturdy shoes.

Directions: Park at the Starr Farm Athletic Field parking area (not the dog park!) make your way North on the bike path for about .25 miles and enter the naturalized area at the first stairway.

Questions? Go to http://www.rozaliaproject.org/  

Vermont Community Foundation

Thank you to the Vermont Community Foundation for including the importance of Green Up Day in your wonderful video entitled Future Inspiration! At their annual meeting last week, we watched all three of their videos that make us their Imagine What's Possible series. The third video entitled Retrospective includes interviews from their founding members, also includes a great quote about philanthropy: "People who want to do good in their community after doing well in life." Please take the time to watch all three videos, they are well done!

http://www.vermontcf.org/imagine/

Poster and Writing Projects deadline

Teachers and parents, our annual poster and writing projects deadline is January 31st. Kids K-12 can enter individually and as a classroom. Homeschoolers are also encouraged to enter. Visit our page for the guidelines:
http://www.greenupvermont.org/contests.php

Rozalia Project for a Clean Vermont

Rozalia Project and the VT Dept. of Labor are teaming up to get rid of that harmful trash and debris. Thanks to a DOL Disaster Recovery Grant, Rozalia Project will employ up to 36 people who have been affected by the floods. These crews will focus on cleaning up public spaces along the areas devastated by the spring floods and Irene. Crews will cleanup throughout Vermont including: State Parks, city/town parks, Wildlife Management Areas, Town picnic areas, scenic pullouts and more along the shores of Lake Champlain and the Lamoille, Winooski, Otter, Mad, White and Ottauquechee River watersheds.

Volunteer Day
Help us clean up Vermont's waterways!

Rozalia Project for a Clean Vermont:
Volunteer Marine Debris Cleanup at Casavant Park!
August the 11th, 10:00am-12:00pm

The Rozalia Project will be hosting an open volunteer day for anyone who would like to come help cleanup Vermont's shores and waterways. Along with the clean up we will be cataloging the debris we collect. Our volunteer efforts are compiled with other data from around the State contributing to a large marine debris study. This event is appropriate for individuals, groups, and families. Volunteers should dress for the weather, bring gloves and wear sturdy shoes.

Directions: From the roundabout in Winooski, turn onto East Allen Street (Route 15 East). The parking lot and trailhead are just off East Allen Street, 200' west of the railroad tracks.

Visit http://www.rozaliaproject.org/join_us/for_a_clean_vermont.html for information!

What makes Green Up Day so special?

The most important thing to understand about Green Up Day is that it is the first of its kind in the entire nation. On April 18^th, 1970, Governor Deane C. Davis lead an army of Green Up volunteers to clean up the entire state, including the Interstates, which were closed the morning of Green Up Day, for clean up! The tradition has continued for 42 years now. Why is this so remarkable? We are the only state in the nation without Adopt-a-Highway. We instead take a grassroots, community approach by involving people of all ages, including children, in the annual clean up event which happens on the First Saturday in May. Many people ask us, why don’t we have Adopt-a-Highway? The non-profit Green Up Vermont was formed in 1979, after a decade of being overseen by the Governor’s office, because Governor Snelling said it was successful enough to go out on its own. That changed our program from a State-funded one to a non-profit one, where we had to fundraise our own operating budget. While fundraising is challenging and stressful (we were $6,000 short of our budget goal both this year and last year!), it means that we are insulated from State budget cuts. Adopt-a-Highway programs all over the country have been facing major budget cuts, which of course, impacts the amount of litter that gets picked up around the country. Vermont also passed the landmark anti-billboard legislation in 1968, thanks again to Governor Davis and Ted Riehle. At that time, Ted Riehle was a legislator, but soon thereafter was appointed Vermont’s first Planning Director, overseeing the first Green Up Day. The connection is a remarkable one, because Green Up Day has helped Vermont stay true to its commitment to this anti-billboard law. Every other Adopt-a-Highway state has large signs indicating who cleans up that stretch of road. In Vermont, VTrans cleans up all of the state highways. Green Up Day focuses on the town roads. The challenge that most states out there face is that only their state highways get cleaned up, and not their town roads.

 Green Up Day is an annual event that has been passed down to several generations now. People tell us that they Greened Up on the first Green Up Day, and now they take their grandkids out to clean up with them! Children are the most important part of Green Up Day, because if we can shape behavior while they are young, we can prevent them from littering when they are adults. After all, litter is everyone’s responsibility! Our long-time coordinators also tell us that they see the same kids, year after year, with their families, cleaning up throughout all their childhood years. It is an annual event which becomes a tradition in many households. Harbinger of spring, it happens just when all the bright greens have started to leaf out, and the daffodils and tulips are in full bloom. A breath of fresh air after a long winter in Vermont. Even the rain does not seem to deter the hardy Green Up volunteers, who have a common goal in sight: to make Vermont the cleanest state in the nation on the First Saturday in May!