TUCSON, Ariz. — Civano Community School proudly and prominently displays a large check replica in the tiny lobby of its administrative office.

The source: The school was recently named the greenest elementary school in America by the makers of All Small and Mighty laundry detergent.

Civano was lauded for saving rainwater in cisterns to irrigate its vegetable garden, for composting leftover scraps from meals, for using solar panels and much more.

The entire student body threw itself into the contest, said Susan Michal, the “youngers,” or Kindergarten and first grade, teacher. All of the students — even the younger ones — wrote essays about how green the school is and what they do at home that carries over from school.

Andrew Ewen, 10, from the “olders” class, which is the equivalent of fourth and fifth grade combined, said he wrote about how the school composts, comparing it to his grandmother’s house, where he and his family give their pig kitchen scraps, like apple peelings, then used the animal’s droppings to fertilize the plants and palo verde trees on their property.

The students and teachers became excited when the All detergent people let them know that the school was in the top 10 in the contest, Michal said.

Then, one morning in early January, people from the Ellen DeGeneres Show came to the school to “spend the day with us” and get footage for the show, she said.

They found out that DeGeneres had taped a message for them, so they pulled a TV into the classroom where all of the students were waiting and played it. Michal said DeGeneres greeted the school and gave them their morning announcements, including what was for hot lunch that day.

Andrew said he saw three big cameras in the room as they watched the video.

Then, DeGeneres suddenly announced that Civano had won the contest, that it was the greenest grade school in America.

“Everyone just went wild,” Michal said. “The kids were just beyond excited.”

Andrew agreed and said, “Everyone was screaming.”

Then DeGeneres' people told them they had to keep it a secret for a week until the show aired, she said. The kids could tell their families, but no one else.

All of the kids — youngers included — kept the secret for the whole week, Michal said.

Andrew said as a result of the school winning the contest, he found himself and his fellow students working harder than ever to keep the school’s green mission in motion.

“I worked harder at composting at home,” he said. “It made me really happy to do the stuff.”

The school won $50,000, which will go toward completing its dream design of having a community room and commercial kitchen so they can prepare healthier meals for the kids, Michal said.

The school’s 66 kids each won green — the color — iPod Shuffle music players, solar battery chargers to match and a year’s supply of All Small and Mighty laundry detergent for their families.



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