Cellcom’s Recycling Program Provides Green Gifts

Four Door County organizations will receive funds generated by Cellcom’s Green Gifts program: Crossroads at Big Creek, Gibraltar Area Schools, The Ridges Sanctuary and the Climate Change Coalition of Door County.

Cellcom’s Green Gifts program gives money to green nonprofit initiatives that it has generated through Cellcom’s cell-phone recycling program. Community members turn in their old or unwanted phones to be reused and recycled. Cellcom sends them to recyclers, who return money to Cellcom for the materials that were saved from the phones.

Green Gifts recipient Crossroads at Big Creek manages 200 acres across three properties for preservation, environmental education and recreation. The organization received a $500 Green Gift to support additional parking areas at The Cove Preserve.

Gibraltar Area Schools just celebrated 100 years of education, and Friends of Gibraltar (FOG) has been providing hands-on, experiential curricula and programming for the past 37 years. FOG received a $500 Green Gift to support adding Every Day Is Earth Day environmental education for K-3 students provided by The Ridges Sanctuary. This will include forest days, garden boxes, composting and waste-reduction efforts on a monthly basis throughout the school year.

The Ridges also received $540 to support its Washington Island Environmental Education Pilot Program, through which Ridges staff will travel to the island to teach a place-based curriculum that connects to classroom units.

The Climate Change Coalition of Door County received a $600 Green Gift to support its community tree-planting project. In 2020, the coalition plans to partner with local nonprofits, businesses and residents to facilitate planting 500 trees throughout the county.