E3 Night of Awards for Sustainability!

I couldn’t be more proud of my district

Just over a week ago, several members of Tahoma School District attended E3 Washington’s Three E’s Summer award ceremony. The ceremony was held to recognize winners of the 2013 Green Apple Awards, the Green Ribbons Schools Awards and the E.P.A.’s Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators. As representatives stepped up to accept the awards, many people in the audience began to perk up as they noticed that Tahoma had received many awards. Tahoma Administrators, such as Mike Maryanski, Dawn Wakeley and more, attended the ceremony to receive the 2013 Green Leader Award for our district. Tahoma School District was awarded the Green District Leader Award for Pillar 1, reducing environmental impact and costs, and pillar 3, providing effective environmental and sustainability education, of the Green Ribbon Schools Program. Tahoma High School and Glacier Park elementary School Administrators were also in attendance along with the school’s Green Team Advisor to accept the 2013 Green Ribbon Schools Award for Washington State. Both Schools were also honored for the national award at a ceremony in Washington D.C on June5th. It was a great moment for each school and the district as a whole.

It was also an important moment for me. Just after graduating from Tahoma High School in early June I attended the ceremony to accept E3 Washington’s 2013 Green Apple Award for being a student leader in environmental education. I was nominated by several members of Tahoma School District because of my work as president of the high school green team and as a project leader on the Stormwater Pollution Solutions grant team.

 As I accepted my award along with other members of the district, I knew that I was there because of their support. My teachers and administrators provided me with the strong support and skills to be an environmental and civic leader. When I was a young 9^th grader, Tahoma’s Sounding Off on the Puget Sound project inspired me to starting using my skills to increase my learning while also making a difference in my community. Tahoma’s strong green team development empowered me year after year to continue developing projects to help the community. Knowing that I have had so much support along the way makes me feel so proud to be a part of Tahoma School District. I feel confident that as we continue to increase collaboration and move towards a sustainable community, more and more students, faculty and citizens will feel the same pride for their schools and district.

Thanks to Cassandra Houghton for this post!