This week was a call for celebration (a zero waste celebration) as Apple Corps Nutrition Educators Lisa Woo and Brian Sindel were both named “Conservation Champions” at their respective schools, Emerson and Van Asselt Elementary. The Conservation Champions Award is given by Seattle Public Schools to individuals who foster a culture of conservation at their sites. Both Lisa and Brian’s contributions to their schools more than qualified them to be nominated for this prestigious honor.

Lisa transformed this once abandoned area into a verdant outdoor classroom!

First let’s look at winner #1’s green profile: Ms. Lisa Woo.

For those of you who are devoted followers of the Apple Corps Blog you may already know that Lisa has been hard at work building and tending her school garden at Emerson Elementary. Starting with some old rickety garden beds and a swath of overgrown shrubs, Lisa has miraculously transformed Emerson’s garden into a beautiful living classroom. With her physical garden in place she has taken her nutrition lessons outside the school’s four walls as she now leads garden exploration classes with her students. In addition to showing her gardeners the importance of healthy, locally grown produce; she also ties in themes of environmental stewardship.

Brian’s revived this forgotten garden giving his students the chance to explore nature’s wonders!

Now to our second winner’s green profile: Mr. Brian Sindel

Just like Lisa, Brian has also been spending time working on his own school garden at Van Asselt Elementary. With the garden Brian has designed lesson plans to invigorate his students’ curiosity and appreciation for the natural world. Though, Brian still spends most of his time working inside the classroom and his award is a result of his composting efforts. As a way to eliminate the term ‘food waste’ from his students dialect, he has created a system of collecting compostable items from his lessons and taking them offsite to avoid the landfill.

Most importantly, as Conservation Champs, Lisa and Brian have helped green their schools in more ways than one. Part of the award includes $400 for each of their schools to use in continuing and future conservation efforts. Not to mention they also received Certificates of Appreciation to frame on their walls.

Here’s to their hard work and their ability to not let their new found celebrity status abandon their ‘roots’!