by Anna Palazij
Students participating in Dream Machine Recycle Rally(TM) celebrate their recycling achievements. The 2011/2012 Dream Machine Recycle Rally kicks off August 1, 2011.
It’s hard to believe that summer is nearly over and that soon it will be back-to-school for kids across the U.S. You may recall my last Living the Promise blog post about my experience presenting PepsiCo’s first Dream Machine Recycle Rally grand prize to St. Pascal School of Chicago, Illinois. The students of St. Pascal collected the most beverage containers per student in the Rally. Today, we announced the launch of the 2011-2012 Dream Machine Recycle Rally with new contest opportunities.
This year’s Dream Machine Recycle Rally is sure to excite – the program is awarding over 75 contest prizes providing schools even more chances to win prizes.
I enjoy knowing that together we’re helping our youth learn about the impact they can make just by recycling. As an environmental engineer, I think it’s important to teach even the youngest students about how a used plastic bottle or aluminum can is able to be transformed into a new bottle or can and can help protect the environment. Through the Dream Machine Recycle Rally, we estimate that participating students and their supporters have collectively conserved nearly 100,000 gallons of gasoline by recycling since the program launched in December 2010 –that is a tremendous environmental impact!
What’s more, for all the bottles and cans recycled through the Dream Machine Recycle Rally and the broader Dream Machine recycling initiative, PepsiCo will provide support to the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities, a national program offering free education in entrepreneurship and small business management to post-9/11 U.S. veterans with disabilities.
I want to thank everyone who is rallying behind this tremendous effort to help the planet, students and our post-9/11 disabled U.S. veterans. I encourage you to get out there and help schools teach their students about recycling. We’re looking forward to another great year for the program!
For more information, please visit: DreamMachineRecycleRally.com.
