A number of Earth Day activities took place today, and my colleague Mary Gail Hare was at Pinewood Elementary in Timonium. So were County Executive Jim Smith, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown and other local officials. Pinewood has been certified as a Green School. 

Here are some tidbits Mary Gail gleaned from students, who appeared unfazed by the showers:

Many students had painted a small blue earth on one cheek and “go green” on the other.

“You have to reduce, re-use and recycle to save the environment,” said Isabella Hsiao, fourth grader.

Classmate Annie Burns said Earth Day is important “because it teaches us all lessons.”

The children spent most of the day outdoors in a steady rain.

“We are celebrating what the earth has given us and learning how to protect it,” said fifth-grader Isabelle Andrews.

Matt Brandau, fourth-grader, pronounced any day that he can plant a tree “really cool.”

“We all have to share this earth,” said Scott Shuster, fourth grader.

Brendan Miller, a fourth-grader, said no one can be “disresponsible. Everyone has to pitch in.”

Fifth-grader Reed Matson helped put together a mural made from recycled bottle caps.

“The only reason people don’t recycle is because they think it’s too much trouble,” Reed said.

The Pinewood students are just another example of how enthusiastically kids embrace going green. I've noted other school-driven efforts to encourage recycling here before. 

The Maryland Association for Outdoor and Environmental Education sponsors the Green Schools program.  Baltimore County is home to about 20 percent of the public and private schools certified as green -- and is the jurisdication with the most such schools statewide, according to county officials. 

Besides Pinewood, the schools in Baltimore County that joined the green ranks this year include:

Krieger Schechter Day School

The Park School

Timonium Elementary

Windsor Mill Middle

Eastwood Elementary

Cromwell Valley Elementary

Stoneleigh Elementary

Westowne Elementary