Cat Category: Judy H. from San Francisco, CA
Home Category: Lisa D. from Columbus, OH
DO-GOODER WINNER PROFILE
MEET TERRI G.
NORTH LAS VEGAS, NV
QUICK Q&A
How do you try to make a difference each day?
While teaching art, I do not let students run water to clean out paints; they must wipe off all paint before rinsing the palettes. At home, I dump water that has not been drunk by the dogs or cat into the plants. I also own a website group called "North Las Vegas Freecycle" that keeps things out of the landfills by recycling them to another person for no cost.
What are some changes you are seeing in your community?
One of the most exciting things that is happening in North Las Vegas is the local garbage company is now offering recycling tubs to recycle refuse! As my Yahoo Freecyle group gets bigger, I see more/larger things staying out of the garbage and being given to others who want them.
What is your cat's name and how did you find each other?
My cat's name is Jilly; I didn’t find her, she found me. One day I climbed into my Jeep and there was Jill. She was sitting on the front seat, waiting for me. I posted "I found a cat" posters, no one called. I called animal control and was told that if I surrendered her, they would kill her in three days. Jilly liked the puppies, I liked Jilly, Jilly likes my house. She picked me. Why the name "Jilly?” I call my Jeep "Jackie" - it seemed right. :) I think she is about two years old now and she had been spayed before she found me.
CONTEST ENTRY
RECYCLED ART EDUCATION
I started teaching three weeks ago at a newly opened high school. Normally new schools would get 4-6 thousand dollars for each art teacher to purchase all the tools and supplies. This year we received $600. To teach ceramics, I use about 2,500 a year in glaze and clay alone, not counting the other tools and supplies needed to make clay. Students in the desert generate thousands of used plastic water bottles a year. I found a local company who will take those bottles, rip them and spin them into fabric. This fabric is considered “green” as it is made from plastic water bottles. This fabric can be sold to local casinos for convention banners as it is 100% printable and up to 30 feet wide. Proceeds from the fabric sales will fund all the art classrooms in the school. I set up a bottle collection site in my classroom to help get more bottles to make fabric which will pay for more art supplies. I am now working to get a large plastic bottle recycling bin set up at my school to get all teachers and students involved in this project. Best of all, once the whole project is working throughout the school, we will drastically cut down on what is being taken to landfills. I would like to use the award money to further enhance recycling efforts to create a sustainable recycling program at Sunrise Mountain High School that will benefit the Clark County School District, (4th largest in the USA). This project will literally change how the entire district looks at bottles in the trash. This would foster understanding in students the importance of recycling.
BIO
I am originally from Live Oak, California, born to parents of peach farmers. I was a high school dropout. I took the GED to get my diploma. I have two daughters and have raised them on my own since they were 9 and 6. I moved to Fair Oaks (by Sacramento) California in 1994 and began a Yahoo Group called Fair Oaks Freecycle and when I left Fair Oaks, I turned it over to another volunteer; I had over 4,000 members at that time.
When my oldest daughter turned 17 I decided to totally change my life. I began college in 1999 at the ripe age of 39. I went to California State University - Sacramento, and studied abroad for a year in Australia. I graduated with a 3.92 GPA. I went back to college to get my teachers credential and began searching for a job teaching art at the high school level. I moved from California to Las Vegas in 2005 and began teaching at Canyon Springs High School. I also started a group on yahoo called North Las Vegas Freecycle to help keep things out of the dumpsters. I have over 2,000 members now. A new school opened in Las Vegas, and I am now working at Sunrise Mountain High School.
SELECTED COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION
SUNRISE MOUNTAIN HIGH SCHOOL
Ironically I entered this contest not to win $5,000 for myself, but to win $15,000 for Sunrise Mountain's program. I could see high school students tossing away plastic bottles every day during first lunch and second lunch. It made me crazy.
The ways this prize money will change our school district is just so exciting for me. If this goes as I vision it, it will effectively bring a change that gets every school into this recycling program. Once I got the call from Purina, I began dreaming.... dreaming really big dreams.
Thank you, Purina!
Location: North Las Vegas, Nevada
schools.ccsd.net/sunrisemountain
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EVERYDAY DO-GOODER TIPS
Greening your business
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Greening Your Business by Trish Riley & Heather Gardonniex is a valuable book business owners should invest in— Submitted on November 09, 2009
