Verizon Awards Cash Prizes to 10 Maui County Schools for Recycling Old Telephone Directories

HONOLULU - With students, teachers, families and friends pitching in, 10 Maui County schools collected more than 29,000 outdated phone directories for Verizon's recycling contest and won nearly $5,000 in cash prizes.

"Our contest keeps thousands of old directories out of the landfills, educates future generations about the benefits of recycling, and raises money for local schools," said Nelson Tanaka, Verizon's Maui manager. "We congratulate the winners and all the other schools that participated."

Verizon will award cash prizes to six Maui schools - three that collected the most directories overall and three that collected the most directories per student.

The schools that collected the most books and the awards they won are:
• Waihee Elementary School -- 10,329 directories, $1,000
• Lahaina Intermediate School -- 5,200 directories, $500
• Baldwin High School -- 4,238 directories, $300

The schools that won for collecting the most books based on enrollment are:
• Lokelani Intermediate School, five directories per student, $1,000
• Kula Elementary School, four directories per student, $500
• Makawao Elementary School, three directories per student, $300.

On Molokai, Kaunakakai Elementary collected nearly 1,200 directories and will receive $500 from Verizon. Kualapuu Elementary and Molokai Mission schools each collected over 100 directories and will receive $100.

On Lanai, Lanai School collected 776 directories and will receive $500.

Other participating Maui schools included: Clearview Christian Girls School, Haiku Elementary, Hana High and Elementary School, and Pukalani Elementary School.

Recycled directories collected on Maui were shipped to a paper mill in Washington State where they will be recycled and ultimately converted into new directories. Books from Molokai and Lanai were recycled into animal bedding by Lanai Waste.

Verizon Communications

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) is one of the world's leading providers of communications services. Verizon companies are the largest providers of wireline and wireless communications in the United States, with 135.8 million access line equivalents and 32.5 million Verizon Wireless customers. Verizon is also the largest directory publisher in the world. With more than $67 billion in annual revenues and 229,500 employees, Verizon's global presence extends to 33 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. For more information on Verizon, visit www.verizon.com.

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