Daddy Daughter Dance

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Horseshoe Trails elementary school’s  (“HTES”) PTO hosts an annual Daddy Daughter Dance for their students and their dads. This is a much anticipated event but unfortunately with over 400 attendees, it has generated an abundance of trash and waste in the past.  This year to align with our goals of becoming“greener,” the Daddy Daughter Dance committee made several changes to reduce our carbon footprint.  The actions we took are as follows:

• 1)Our theme was “shabby chic” and thus allowed us to recycle old items (mason jars, tin cans, doilies, ribbon, spaghetti jars, tomato climbers etc) into décor.  We partnered with another district school and shared the supplies and décor.  This reduced expenses for both school as well as waste generated from décor.

• 2)100% recycled napkins were purchased from seventh generation www.shoplet.com

 
3)We purchased corn based biodegradable and compostable cups in lieu of the water bottles that we used in the prior years www.bioselect.com. While the water bottles were recyclable, many of the bottles were left half full and/or not recycled properly.  We also used reusable plastic milk bottles to put lemonade in.  These were not thrown out but rather washed to be used at another event.  Names were written on chalkboard labels to encourage kids not to take more than one cup.

 
4)Pink stripe biodegradable straws were purchased from Amazon.com Http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ELMLOY4/ref=pe_385040_30332210_pe_334560_28252370_dp_1

• 5)In lieu of plastic table cloths, we utilized recyclable kraft paper purchased from the dollar store
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• 6)We opted not to have paper plates to reduce the amount of waste generated.

• 7)We ordered 125 corsages from a local florist.  The corsages were packaged in plastic.  At the entry line, volunteers
  took back the corsage packaging and were recycled.

• 8)Décor was saved to use for future events such as teacher appreciation week or teacher luncheons.

• 9)Lace tableclothes were purchased from second had stores.
• 10)HTES reduced their trash from four trash cans in prior year to only two.  All trash items were biodegradable.

Our PTO profited over $2,000 from this event.  Double what was made in prior years!