The CYC Earned Three Sustainability Awards This Year
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
May 16, 2019 - The CYC’s commitment to teaching children to take care of the environment culminated in earning three major awards this spring.
January 9 - The Platinum UMD Green Office award from the UMD’s Office of Sustainability- The CYC had earned the Gold Green Office award several times by completing actions from a list such as, having trash free office events and carpooling to conferences. This new Platinum award allowed the center to show off some of its own actions, earning the Maryland Green School award and Trash Free Tuesdays being two of them.
April 24 - Third renewal of the Maryland Green School award- This award involves many steps including creating a committee with representatives from the children, staff, and greater community. The whole kindergarten class stepped up to the challenge and named themselves the, "Earth Committee". The school also showed that they include environmental teaching throughout the classrooms with projects such as worms, plants, and energy. Four pathways, chosen from seven, were addressed and a celebration was held. The CYC used Maryland Day as an opportunity to celebrate with displays and songs that showed their commitment. This award is renewed every four years.
May 19 - Third renewal to the National Wildlife Federations Eco-School USA Green Flag award- This award, renewed every two years, piggybacks on the Maryland Green School award. In addition, audits of three pathways including Energy, need to be completed with the children’s help. Both this award and the Green School award are more designed for elementary through high school age children, but the preschoolers and kindergarten children were able to accomplish them with few modifications.
As the last award was completed, the Earth Committee was awarded a small trophy for its work toward these prestigious honors. The Center for Young Children maintains a web site specifically reserved to show how each of the requirements have been fulfilled. Please visit the site to see the multitude of sustainable related activities the CYC has accomplished. CYC Green Pages
