Vote for your Green Hero from among 5 school finalists

In August we asked readers to nominate schools, individuals, children and businesses that took extraordinary efforts to go green.

We received more than 350 nominations across those four divisions, and now leave it up to you to choose the winners at greenhero.azcentral.com.

During the next week, we will he highlighting the five finalists in each division as chosen by the Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University. Today we focus on the Green Hero finalists in the K-12 schools division. The winning school, as chosen by online votes, will receive a $2,500 Safeway gift card.

Green Hero nominee: Summit School of Ahwatukee.

Nominated by: Kathy Covert, admissions and marketing director.

Highlights: Third-graders started the Finer Things Club to stop their use of paper plates and plastic utensils. Children brought dishware from home to use for their parties. The technology classroom has set 24 computers to shut off automatically.

Quote: "It's taken on a life of its own in the school and it's extending to the parents," said Andrea Benkel, assistant principal. "That's what makes a good community, when you have parents supporting not only what their children do academically but who their children are as people."

Green Hero nominee: Wildcat Ecology Club, Mesquite High School in Gilbert.

Nominated by: Daryl Dubas, club sponsor.

Highlights: Collects recyclables on the 3,300-student campus, amounting to about 30,000 pounds of recycling each year; sells cloth bags to reduce use of plastic shopping bags; performs green-related monthly jobs with several environmental groups.

Quote: "A lot of times these kids get in this organization and they don't expect much more than to have fun and know they're doing something good for the environment," said Dubas. "But to be able to show them that there are other people out there that appreciate what they do is just a great thing."

Green Hero nominee: Frontier Wildcat families, Frontier Elementary School in Peoria.

Nominated by: Anne Babina, instructional specialist.

Highlights: Families recycle plastic grocery bags through the Wal-Mart Kids Recycling Challenge and so far, they have collected thousands. In three years, the school has reduced spending on paper as teachers use transparencies, document cameras, white boards and wireless slates. Each classroom assigns a monitor to turn out the lights.

Quote: "The students have been the most successful and excited about the amount of paper we are recycling," said Frontier Principal Davita Solter. "We have a recycling box in every classroom and a student that goes around every week and picks up the paper. And we moved our recycling bin to the front of the school so our community could become involved that way."

Green Hero nominee: Kyrene De Las Brisas in Chandler.

Nominated by: Mary Jo Boergers, co-coordinator for the school's paper recycling.

Highlights: Students took first place in a recycling contest after collecting 4 tons of paper, and a year later outdid themselves by getting the community involved and recycling 30 tons of paper. Last year they installed an irrigation system for their garden. Quote: "The students are most excited (about recycling) because it's something we can do," Boergers said. "They can also see the visible results of the papers piling in the recycle bin, the water bottles expanding in giant plastic bags and the mountain of plastic shopping bags."

Green Hero nominee: The SOAP (Save Our Amazing Planet) Club.

Nominated by: Marta Connally, organization sponsor.

Highlights: Students started the Mesa district's first schoolwide recycling program, organized a two-year drive to recycle cellphones and print cartridges, and hosted an environmental awareness week.

Quote: "This is like a payoff to them," Connally said. "It's been a lot of hard work and a lot of frustration, too, getting all the departments to come onboard with the recycling at first."

Summit School student Kyle Harrison practices being green by repurposing classroom recyclables.