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ORLANDO - Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) joins The Walt Disney Company to
honor this year’s winners of Disney’s Environmentality Challenge. Fifth grade students from Ms. Erin Gaylor’s
class at Tradewinds Elementary School in Coconut Creek were recently honored as the 2008 statewide
Environmentality Challenge winners during a ceremony at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
“The Environmentality Challenge is an easy, fun and interactive way to teach students environmental practices
today which will ensure better environmental citizenship tomorrow,” said DEP Central District Director Vivian
Garfein. "DEP is proud to partner with Walt Disney World to encourage fifth graders to think about what they
can do to conserve and protect natural resources at home, at school and in their communities.”
The statewide challenge, conducted annually by Walt Disney World and the Department of Environmental Protection,
encourages fifth graders to actively participate in the protection of their local environment by completing and
documenting an environmental project in their school or community. Each year, state fifth graders are invited to
take the challenge. To date more than 130,000 students have participated in Disney’s Environmentality Challenge.
More than 78,000 students have pledged to help protect their environment and more than 24,000 students have
completed a community or schoolyard environmental project.
This year’s statewide winners educated fellow students and the Coconut Creek community about water conservation
through their project “H2O Heroes.” Ms. Gaylor’s class designed coloring books used to teach other classes in the
school about water conservation. In addition, the class is selling the coloring books to raise money to help its
pen pal village in Africa have clean water. To date, the class has raised $350, more than half of the $600 goal,
which will be donated for “PlayPumps”, or water pumps powered by children playing on a merry-go-round that is
attached to the pump.
The state champion and the five regional winners below were chosen from among 36 submissions:
- South Florida: “The Community Team” submitted by Diane Curtis and Lindsay Daniel’s class at Tice Elementary,
Fort Myers. Students cleaned up their school and community with weekly trash pick-ups. The class also informed
the community and other students of ways to be “green” by creating brochures and bookmarks that they distributed.
- Southwest Florida: “Bryan Bulldog Bag Project” submitted by Karen Beck’s class at Bryan Elementary, Plant City.
The project gave insight to the community and students about the importance of recycling. Students collected and
recycled more than 8,000 plastic grocery bags and procured 100 canvas bags to be used for grocery shopping.
- Northwest Florida: “The Cycle of Recycle” submitted by Joyce Blackwelders’s class at Scenic Elementary, Pensacola.
The project educated students, parents and the community about the significance of recycling. Students raised money
for Ronald McDonald House, Help Soldiers Call Home and school technology by collecting and recycling different items.
- Northeast Florida: “E=MC2” or “Environmentality = Mrs. Craine’s Class” submitted by Melinda Craine’s class at
Joseph Williams Elementary, Gainesville. Students wrote, shot, edited and broadcast a series of environmental news
shows. The class also published parts of the shows’ scripts in the student newspaper.
- Central Florida: “Layer Recycle System” submitted by Amy Copeland and Tracy Dombroski’s class at Layer Elementary
School, Winter Springs. Students researched and created a school-wide recycling program and advertised it to the school
by creating posters and producing commercials.
For more information on Disney’s Environmentality Challenge and how to participate in next year’s program, visit
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/secretary/ed/, or www.deckids.org.
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2012 State of Florida