Last year, the 2019-20 MS Green Team developed a proposal to encourage the School’s use of reusable balloons, which are more sustainable and eco-friendly than traditional balloons. 

2019-20 MS Green Team on November 15, 2019, America Recycles Day

The result of their hard work is the newly acquired collection of reusable vinyl blue balloons that welcomed RCDS students back to campus for orientation week. These festive and environmentally friendly balloons will be a fixture at future school events!

Impressed with the students' thoughtful proposal and the creative solutions they suggested, Director of Advancement Lynette Gioffre shared, “We are thrilled with the vinyl balloons and happy to do our part in making sustainability central to our events. Our students’ dedication is inspiring. We are really glad they thought of this.”

To support their vision for a sustainability-driven balloon-free campus, the Green Team researched alternatives in collaboration with students in AP Environmental Science, and they wrote a proposal for which they sought signatures from the RCDS community. The proposal, which was submitted to Mr. Nelson and the Advancement Office, identifies the ways in which balloons harm the environment, including strings getting entangled in birds and fish and runaway balloons ending up in unwanted places such as the ocean, where they endanger marine life. The proposal also identifies the issues with balloons’ use of helium, a non-renewable resource with a dwindling supply. Helium is also important to the medical field for the production of MRI and LCD scanners and the use of fiber optics. The proposal states, “We cannot waste such a valuable resource on something like balloons, which are single-use, non-recyclable, and non-biodegradable.”