While we like to take the hard line at GirlDriver, USA keeping our auto companies on their toes and serving you, sometimes they harness their horsepower to the good and we love to talk about that too. Actually, they're always doing good stuff. Here's one you can give to your kid's school or any teachers you may know. Lexus and Scholastichave launched the Sixth Annual Environmental Contest with $500,000 in Grants and Scholarships to be Awarded
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The "One-Towel Wonders” team from
SCAPA Bluegrass in
Lexington, Ky., is
a grand prize winner in the 2011-2012
Lexus Eco
Challenge. The team demon-
strated how a simple idea – using one
towel per
person per week – would
benefit the environment.
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Young people are committed
to making a difference in the world, and for the sixth year, their
efforts will be rewarded through the Lexus Eco Challenge. An
educational program and contest, the Lexus Eco Challenge has inspired
and empowered more than 22,000 middle and high school students to learn
about the environment and take action to improve it. For their efforts,
more than $3.5 million has been awarded to students, teachers and
schools across the nation. This fall, students are invited to
participate for a chance to win part of $500,000 in grants and
scholarships. Lexus, the luxury automaker, has once again joined with
Scholastic Inc., the global children’s publishing, education and media
company, to create the eco-friendly educational school program.
“The Lexus Eco Challenge is an integral part of the environmental
studies curriculum at our school,” said Ashlie Beals, teacher advisor
for the 2011 grand prize-winning team called the “One-Towel Wonders.”
”For the past five years all of my 8th grade students have worked in
teams to create and implement innovative campaigns to encourage others
to make one small change that can have a large positive impact on our
environment. During the challenge students sharpen their oral and
written communication skills, utilize many forms of technology, and work
together actively and enthusiastically to solve real-life problems. My
younger students eagerly look forward to their chance to participate in
the challenge when they are in 8th grade. I can’t thank Lexus and
Scholastic enough for offering this tremendous opportunity to my
students.”
The Challenge has two distinct elements:
• Standards-based supplementary educational materials - encourages
teachers to integrate creative lesson plans into their classrooms to
help teach students about the environment.
• Competition to reward environmental
action - helps young people apply what they’ve learned in class through
the program and empowers them to make improvements in their community by
participating in the environmental team challenges.
"Year after year students tell us that the Lexus Eco Challenge helped
them learn how to improve the environment," said Mark Templin, Lexus
group vice president and general manager. "But they say the most
important aspect of the competition is the revelation that they can make
a difference. That knowledge and experience will be powerful as their
generation takes responsibility for making decisions about the
environment.”
The Challenges and Rewards
The Lexus Eco Challenge registration is open now and will conclude with
the announcement of the first-place and grand-prize-winning teams in
spring 2013. Middle and high school teams, comprised of 5-10 students
and a teacher advisor, are invited to participate in one or both of the
two initial challenges, each addressing different environmental elements
– land/water and air/climate.
For each of the challenges, teams define an environmental issue that is
important to them, develop an action plan to address the issue,
implement the plan, and report the results. Submission deadlines are:
Challenge #1 (land/water) – Oct. 29, 2012 and Challenge #2 (air/climate)
– Dec. 17, 2012.
Each of the challenges will have 16 winning teams – eight middle school
and eight high school teams. The winning teams will each receive a
total of $10,000 in scholarships and grants to be shared among the
students, teacher and school. In addition, the winning action plans
will be featured on a special Web page to inspire other students to take
action in their communities.
In early January, the winning teams from the first two challenges will
be invited to participate in the Final Challenge. Teams will be asked
to reach beyond the local community and inspire environmental action
around the world through innovative ideas that are communicated to a
wide audience. From the Final Challenge entries, eight first-place
teams and two grand-prize-winning teams will be selected. Each of the
eight first-place teams will receive a total of $15,000 in grants and
scholarships, and the two grand-prize-winning teams will each receive
$30,000. The money will be shared by the students, their teacher
advisors and their schools.
Lexus’ Environmental Efforts
Lexus is the luxury hybrid leader with five low-emission hybrid vehicles
available. When Lexus began selling hybrids in 2005, it helped advance
the concept of sustainability without sacrifice. The Lexus Eco
Challenge is part of The Lexus Pursuit of Potential, a philanthropic
initiative that generates up to $3 million in donations each year for
organizations that help build, shape and improve children’s lives.
Contact: Nancy Hubbell
Lexus Communications
(310) 468-7633
nancy_hubbell@lexus.com
