The American Cleaning Institute shared the results of the 2016 Healthy Schools, Healthy People, It's a SNAP National Awards Program. Healthy Schools, Healthy People, It's a SNAP is a hands-on initiative from the American Cleaning Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, designed to help keep students in school and learning by promoting clean hands. Since 2003, schools have received recognition for their handwashing projects.
 
Top Recipient Award:
Congratulations go to McBride High School from Long Beach, California who earned the national award for their bilingual handwashing campaign called “Los Guerreros del Jabón,” or “Soapy Warriors.” They wrote a bilingual song emphasizing the basic steps and timing to teach “the right way to wash their hands.” Students prepared classroom presentations. They also created bilingual posters for each classroom; the posters included the application of hand sanitizer as well. They provided calendars for each student to take home, with stickers to track the times they wash their hands. These calendars had pictures of the most important times people should wash their hands, and were collected at the end of the month to follow up on the tracking of the students' handwashing habits.
 
Runner-Up Award Recipients:
Cottonwood School from Aguanga, California earned a runner-up award with their “Mr. Bubble” campaign. Mr. Bubble is a water drop that served as a reminder all around the school and community to wash those hands! Mr. Bubble stickers were placed on tissue boxes and near restroom sinks. To support the message, the leadership class created a tri-fold poster board, with an inter-active display to present Mr. Bubble to the school community, so that they recognize Mr. Bubble when they see him around campus. They included information about when to wash your hands, and how to “do it right.”
 
Litchfield Middle School FCCLA Chapter from Litchfield, Minnesota also earned a runner-up award. Members of the Grade 8 Exploratory FACS class visited preschool, kindergarten and elementary classrooms and taught lessons and carried out activities. Their main focus was on when you should wash hands and the right way to wash them. They designed lessons to reach many people by presenting our materials in more than one language. They also created a video for the middle and high school students on the proper use of hand sanitizer.
 
Watch for additional information about these award worthy projects on the website www.itsasnap.org very soon. Until then, you can view the Photos and Videos pages to learn more about previous projects that earned our national award.