Writing for a purpose, putting words on paper to commit yourself to a course of action.
That is what New Rochelle Davis students did. Challenged by the prestigious Nina Chin Green Writing contest, 48 students rose to the challenge and committed to making a difference.
Last Thursday, Davis’s auditorium was filled with third, fourth and fifth grade students, all excited and nearly shaking with anticipation.
Who will win?
One by one, Assistant Principal Laurie Marinaro called up the winners, and under thunderous applause the proud students walked up to receive their certificate and their envelop with a cash prize.
This contest is sponsored by the family of the late Nina Chin. Ms Chin was a life long educator and she knew that better writers are better learners. So she sponsored from her own money every year a writing contest for her students, challenging them to rise and put words on paper as a written commitment. And it worked! Nina Chin’s family is proud to continue this tradition and Anna Giordano, Executive Director of We Future Cycle has been honored to administer this grant now for 8 years. This year, two New Rochelle students were chosen.
Even though the contest is only open to 3rd to 5th grade, one second grader decided to participate and wrote a wonderful essay explaining how recycling brings hope for good change. Talia’s grade was not part of the auditorium award ceremony, so she got a visit to the classroom by the Assistant Principal and all the dignitaries to be presented with her certificate. And she got great cheering from her classmates. I am sure, that 2nd grade class cannot wait to participate next year.
Grade 2
Talia Goldsmith wrote a beautiful and long essay entitled “More Recycling, More Hope” and she explains to the reader that plastics do not turn into dirt when they are thrown out and she then launches into a long list of what can be done to educate others and how to do hands on solutions.
Grade 3
Abigayle Mills explains how she is making a difference by doing the 6 Rs actually, Reuse, Reduce, Recycle, Rethink, Repair and Refuse. She is explaining how every person can do follow the 6 Rs and she cites interesting facts she collected while researching for this essay.
Ben Kessler is pointing in his essays to many overlooked environmental problems. He lists how people are wasting power and are putting chemicals on their lawns that can hurt people and animals and is causing pollution in our water. He explains the looming problems associated with global warming and then he launches into a detailed description of how he and his families are actively making a difference by bringing all food in reusable containers, picking up trash when they are on a hike and growing a garden. He ends with a powerful call to action :” Everybody can do more. The environment is our life and we need to take care of it”
Xavier Pichardo organizes his ideas to make a difference into small, medium and large and give examples as to what can be done and how small, medium or large effort it takes to do. He lists examples of picking up trash, eliminating single serve cups and bags and donating ones christmas tree to be part of a new beach dune.
Declan Fleming explains how he and his dad are actively sorting their waste into paper, commingled and non -recyclables on Saturdays, and that they are doing food composting in the yard. He explains that he brings his reusable water bottle every day and that he pledges to take shorter showers and switching off any light. He has lovely pictures as part of his essay to illustrate his points.
Iona Conneely leads the reader right into the topic why asking for their help in terms of making the world a better place. She concentrates on the evils of plastic straws and how they harm wildlife, turtles in particularly, She offers many solutions that are easy to do and she calls for actions to go around and ask restaurants to stop giving out straws. That sounds like a GREAT idea.
Leyah Perdomo starts her essay by highlighting just how beautiful this Earth is and how littering, hunting and wasting water is damaging this awesome world. She calls the reader to action to help her save the world by describing that anything dumped on the floor gets washed into the oceans and that will hurt animals. She explains the effects of wasting water and hunting animals and ends with the intense plea to make good choices and help save this Earth.
Grade 4
Gemma Gilmartin outlines how she is personally affected when she sees people litter. She shares that some classmates are just emptying their wrappers on the ground and it makes her upset. She emotionally describes how many little things can make a bid difference and give many example such as picking up trash, using reusable bottles instead of single serve ones, She shared a story where she saw her classmates after the plant sale with plastic bags and upon asking them if they really needed the bag, she collected them all to bring back to the plant sale for re-usage. That is very proactive thinking and just maybe, her actions made the plant sale moms think to ask if someone actually needed a bag. She carefully illustrated with colored pencil drawings her ideas. Gemma even founded a Nature Club in 1st grade.
Gabriella Collins focuses on combating litter. She has colorful pictures about litter and how easy it is to just pick it up by just carrying a bag when you go somewhere. She knows that her actions do not stay unnoticed and by herself modeling to pick up, others will follow in this effort. She ends with a call to action by being a change agent in our society.
Carmel Weiner explains what is all recyclable and what can be composted, he lists how these simple actions help the world and how they are important values in his family. His family owns an electric car and he describes how fun it is to drive know that you do not burn gas. He also shares that he never uses paper or plastic ware at home and even though it means he has to do more dishes, he does not mind the extra work because it is worth it to help take care of our planet.
David Lore shares some shocking data with the reader. He observed that there are many plastic water bottles on ball fields and learned through research that in the US every single hour over 4 million plastic bottles are used but only 25% of them make their way into recycling. He shares that he reminds his mother to bring the reusable bags to the store so she would not need plastic bags.
Grade 5
Angela Mathew shares her story of going the extra mile by picking up litter to dispose of it correctly. It made her feel good and she is proud of herself and wants to do it again. She understands how important trees are to life and has planted many seeds to help plants to grow. She shares the story of the Taj Mahal in India having been really dirty but then people came together to clean it up.
Millie Stevenson is leading others to do better. She fixes other students sorting mistakes because she cares. She describes how trash thrown carelessly out of the window can hurt animals and plants.
Sophia Ochoa helps her community by recycling because she knows that when people start to care about recycling, they will also not litter anymore. She realizes that garbage has a terrible effect on communities and it creates pollution and global warming. Sophia also understand that recycling lowers the need for raw materials and thus helps the earth. She ends by imploring people to recycling more and not be a lazy lizard.
Yuna Ueno draws the reader in by recounting a story of how people that litter often think someone else will come along to pick it up anyways. She researched this issue and realized that according to her information over 75% of our waste can be recycled, but currently the average is only 34%. She lists many good ways of how personal choices of reducing waste can make a huge difference. She gives many example on where we can do the right thing such as at home, on our way to school or where ever we see trash on the ground. It is easy to do and you can find a friend to do it with.
How does that garbage get there, you might ask? Well, not by people physically throwing it into the water. Instead, all of our streets are connected to the ocean by their rain water sewers. The ocean starts right at your home street. That is because anything and everything that is on the street and gets washed with the rain water into these sewers will absolutely, positively end up in the ocean. There is no filtering system between the street and the ocean.
The auditorium at New Rochelle Trinity school was packed with excited 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. There was a hushed silence with raw anticipation. Up front were 4 dignitaries and the assistant principal welcoming the kids to the auditorium.
This writing contest is sponsored by the family of the late Nina Chin. Ms Chin was a lifelong educator and believed strongly that good writers are good learners and to encourage her own students to write, she sponsored every year a writing contest from her money. Her family loved this tradition that they chose to continue it in her memory and every year one or two New Rochelle schools are chosen to become recipients of this award. Anna Giordano, from We Future Cycle, the organization that is hired by the New Rochelle school district to bring sustainability programs and education to all 11.500 students is the administer of this award and is always delighted to help schools run this exciting contest.
