St. John Elementary School in Parachute has won the Garfield Clean Energy Home Room & School Challenge

More than 1,000 Families Sign up During Energy Challenge for Schools. Read the full story here.

St. John Elementary School in Parachute has won the Garfield Clean Energy Home Room & School Challenge. Students at the school saved $2,101 in avoided energy costs during the competition and cut their carbon dioxide emissions by 2,012 pounds during April 25–29. St. John Elementary earned a total of 18,373 points, and took home a cash prize of $2,000 after the five-day challenge.

Garfield county commissioners John Martin, Tom Jankovsky and Mike Samson awarded cash prizes to students from the three winning schools, St. John Elementary, Crystal River Elementary in Carbondale ($500), and Highland Elementary in Rifle ($100), at their regular meeting Monday morning. In awarding the prizes, Martin congratulated the students and noted that he has been walking to work for 40 years. Alpine Bank provided the funding for the prizes.

"We had an unbelievable response to the challenge," said Cathy Tuttle, project manager for Clean Energy Economy for the Region, which organized the Challenge. "Seventeen schools in three school districts (approximately 7,000 students) across the county participated. All told, this represents several thousand Garfield County families who are becoming aware of energy issues and how to address them."

Schools won points for students walking, biking, carpooling, or riding the bus to school. Schools won additional points when students signed their families up to take energy-saving actions in their homes. More than 1,000 students signed up their homes and families, and hundreds walked, biked, or took the bus. Carla Stuckey and Solana Teitler of Carbondale even rode their bikes to Monday's commissioners' meeting.

Schools in Parachute, Rifle, Silt, New Castle, Glenwood Springs, and Carbondale participated. Second-place finishers Crystal River Elementary earned a total of 14,917 points, while Highland Elementary, third, earned 12,599. Altogether, the seventeen schools saved $37,621 in avoided energy costs during the competition and cut their carbon dioxide emissions by 43,908 pounds, according to Tuttle.

The Challenge also honored the top three homerooms in each participating school. The winning homerooms at St. John Elementary School were Meek, Mulligan, and Nickelson. The winning homerooms at Bea Underwood Elementary in Parachute were McMillan, Daugherty, and Hanner. The winning homerooms at Grand Valley Middle School in Parachute were Wise, Newlin, and Sorenson. The winning homerooms at Walmsley Elementary School in Rifle were Lentz, Fleming, and Nelson. The winning homerooms at Rifle Middle School were Wisniewski, Nipper, and LaBeau. The winning homerooms at Cactus Valley Elementary School in Silt were Keesee, Barths, and Carlson. The winning homerooms at Elk Creek Elementary School in New Castle were Larsen, Goetz, and Palmer. The winning homerooms at Kathryn Senor Elementary in New Castle were Kielmeyer, Rahn, and Greene. The winning homerooms at Riverside Middle School in New Castle were Steward, Whittington, and DiMieri. The winning homerooms at Sopris Elementary in Carbondale were Howe, Beck, and Thayn. The winning homerooms at Glenwood Elementary were King, Gallegos, and Meyer. The winning homerooms at Highlands Elementary School in Rifle were Olech, Suiter, and Craw. The winning homerooms at Glenwood Middle School were Heiser, Moberg, and Spencer. The winning homerooms at Crystal River Elementary were Jaynes, Lynch, and Stone. The winning homerooms at Carbondale Community School were Farrar, Huttenhower, and Jacober. The winning homerooms at Carbondale Middle School were Hernandez, Alcantara, and Streeb. The winning homerooms at Graham Mesa Elementary School in Rifle were Blair, Jacobson, and Aaron.

"We are hoping to be able to purchase a new bike rack because we don't have enough room in the existing rack," said Jenna Hemphill, PE teacher at St. John Elementary School. "We also want to have the kids help with safety issues and concerns in crossing the street. We have a busy road that we have to cross on the way to school. And, we also want to buy some new equipment."

The annual Garfield Clean Energy Home Room & School Challenge is part of the county-wide Garfield Clean Energy Challenge, which helps homes and businesses save energy and cut energy costs. Homes signed up for the Garfield Clean Energy Challenge get access to technical assistance for energy audits and improvements, ongoing help in applying for utility rebates and incentives, and are eligible for monthly prize drawings and additional incentives.

The Clean Energy Challenge is a project of Garfield Clean Energy, a countywide collaboration between towns, county government, RFTA, and the Garfield Library District, with program management provided by CLEER.

For more information, call (970) 704-9200.

For more information, visit www.GarfieldCleanEnergy.org or call (970) 704-9200.