STUDIO CITY : Company Honors Students’ Efforts

After the fruits of their Earth Day efforts were stolen, the students and community around Carpenter Elementary School in Studio City were unbowed.

As a result, the school has been named winner of the Crystal Pencil Award.

“We were moved by the vandalism the school suffered,” said Daryn Teague, a spokesman for the Incense Cedar Institute, a company based in Stockton that supplies wood for pencil-making companies. “This was an opportunity to assist with the replanting as we have done on a larger scale in the forest,” he said.

In late April, students discovered that vandals had stolen the primroses from a patch the students had planted to celebrate Earth Day. But with community help and donations, the school was able to replace the patch in time for a Cinco de Mayo celebration, said Principal Joan Marks.

The planting project is something done every year at the school, but this is the first in which the students have taken such an extensive part in it, the principal said.

“The kids are taking much more pride in their school,” Marks said, adding that the whole episode has fostered a school spirit in which each class has adopted a part of the campus to keep clean.

The Crystal Pencil Award, a piece of engraved Hoya lead crystal in the shape of a pencil, will be awarded during an open house at the school today at 5 p.m. A $150 cash prize goes along with the award.

This is the first year the award has been given to encourage schools taking an interest in environmental issues.