Yellowknife (Dec 17/04) - Years of environmental education paid off for K'alemi Dene school Dec. 2.

That's the day they received the Arctic Energy Alliance's Energy Awareness Award and a $1,000 cash prize.

Teacher Steve Smith accepted the award with student Kelvin Etsemba-Sangris. Smith's class organizes most of the environmental initiatives around K'alemi Dene, but the whole school participates.

In the last two and a half years, the school has done community-wide clean-ups and can collections, a composting program, and also developed a pamphlet on recycling and conservation.

"The biggest thing we do is every week we co-ordinate the recycling in the school. We have blue bins in every classroom and then my kids go around and collect them all," said Smith.

The $1,000 award is going toward the school's morning snack program.