Yellow Pages honours UK recyling and arts champions - 17 October 2003
Six schools travelled to London Zoo on Friday October 17 to be honoured in the first ever UK Finals of the Yellow Woods Challenge – the schools environmental campaign run by Yellow Pages, the Directory Recycling Scheme and the Woodland Trust, working with local authorities across the UK.The Yellow Woods Challenge is a simple, educational and fun competition that aims to recycle Yellow Pages, educate children about conservation and help the Woodland Trust to keep the UK’s native woodland alive.
Broom Leys School (Coalville), Halwin School (Cornwall) and Chapel Road School (Attleborough) were named ‘Yellow Pages UK Recycling Champions’ and each received £2,000 cash from Yellow Pages for recycling the most directories per pupil.*
Aqueduct Primary School (Telford), Sedgefield Hardwick School (Sedgefield) and St Margaret’s CofE Primary School (Withern) received computer/digital equipment for building the best sculptures out of the old directories they collected for recycling, as judged by ITV’s Art Attack presenter, Neil Buchanan.
Yellow Pages is dedicating Woodland Trust trees to all UK Finalists and for every pound it has awarded to schools, it has given a matching pound to the Woodland Trust.
Nearly 250,000 schoolchildren from 900 schools took part in the Yellow Woods Challenge 2002/03. Teachers found it a ‘worthwhile, curriculum-linked activity with opportunities to win cash prizes’. £30,000 has already been awarded to around 150 schools in the regional competitions.
The UK Finals event at London Zoo celebrated the success of the first year of the Yellow Woods Challenge and showcased the achievements of the winning schools.
Kirk, the campaign mascot, and a 12 ft tall ‘tree lady’ joined the children and representatives of Yellow Pages and the Woodland Trust for the awards ceremony and helped the children complete a recreation of the award-winning sculpture: ‘Sabrina the River Severn Serpent’ made out of 1,241 old Yellow Pages by pupils at Aqueduct Primary School.
Neil Buchanan, presenter of Art Attack, said: "The Yellow Woods Challenge is a great way for schools and schoolchildren to learn more about recycling and woodland conservation. As someone who has a passion for art I am delighted to have been involved in the judging of the 2002/03 sculpture competition. This year's entries were - without exception - of a really high standard, and I think that the winning sculptures demonstrate exactly what the Yellow Woods Challenge stands for."
Richard Duggleby, head of external relations at Yell, the publisher of Yellow Pages, said: “We are delighted with the success of the Yellow Woods Challenge in its first year. Thousands of children have recycled thousands of directories and raised thousands of pounds for schools and the Woodland Trust. They have also learnt about the environment and woodland conservation and seen how caring for the planet can be simple and fun.”
Forty-nine local authorities across the UK ran Challenges during 2002/03, helping them to raise the profile of recycling, develop relationships with schools and reduce landfill.
The Yellow Woods Challenge is being expanded in 2003/04, aiming to involved 60 local authorities and 1,200 schools across the UK. There are new and improved teaching materials and revised categories and increased prize money available for next year’s UK finalists.
