2004 Maryland Green School Award

The Maryland Green School Award Program recognizes and celebrates Maryland schools that use the school site, the community and their curriculum and instruction to prepare students to understand and act on the current and future environmental challenges that face the State.

There are currently 106 Green Schools throughout Maryland, representing nearly every county in the state. Visit the Maryland Association for Environmental & Outdoor Education's web site for details and more information on the program. The site includes applications, tips, resources, and a list of previous award winners.

Green Flag School

The Green Flag Program is a new initiative of the national Child Proofing Our Communitites campaign, coordinated by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. The goal of the program is to help make schools healthy and safe through investigation, education, innovation and action.

To learn more about the program and how to become a Green Flag School, visit www.greenflagschools.org.

Earth Day Speech

"In the course of two years Patuxent has made great efforts to make our staff and student more environmentally aware. The first thing we did as a staff was, we went to school. For three summers now, we have sent 8 teachers to participate in a two-week environmental class at Hard Bargain Farm in Accokeek, MD. With the new information learned, teachers have come back more knowledgeable and excited about the outdoors. Because our teachers were excited, we were able to get our students excited. Because of the spread of knowledge and excitement about the environment, we have formed environmental clubs, started a recycling program and most importantly, our students have become stewards of the environment.

Every October, for two years now, our school has participated in the Gorgeous Prince George's Day sponsored by our County Executive, Mr. Jack Johnson. In our first year of participation, we had over 100 parents, students, teachers and community members and we were able to plant 105 native trees in a record time of approximately 45 minutes. Since then, we have planted an additional 300 plus trees around the school's campus.

In the month of November we have our annual Environmental Night. This is a night where parents and students come out and engage in discussions and demonstrations about the environment, such as recycling and water pollution. Each year, it so wonderful to hear how much the students, but especially how much the parents have learned.

Because of our push for the environment, Patuxent has been recognized by both local and state environmental agencies as a school that cares about the environment. Patuxent is currently a Green School and we are recipients of the Green Flag Award. We are the first school in Maryland to receive both honors at once.

Though the awards and accolades are wonderful, we do what we do here because we realize that 'Everyday is an Earth Day!'"