LAKE TAHOE, Calif. / Nev. – Five local teams are celebrating after winning awards in the Shane McConkey Foundation’s 2025 EcoChallenge, which inspires students around the nation to creatively take environmental action.

The challenge is organized to award first through third place in four categories of differing difficulty—categories, which might look familiar. Green Circle, Blue Square, Black Diamond and double black diamond—Experts Only—levels are an ode to Shane, a renown and pioneering skier. His wife, Sherry McConkey started the foundation following his death 16 years ago.

“Shane really cared deeply about the environment, and so did I,” Sherry said. “We were always talking about what we can do.”

The foundation is now entering its 10th annual EcoChallenge, just one of the many environmentally-minded actions the foundation does to honor Shane’s impactful legacy. “You know, he just proved to me, you can do anything you want,” Sherry expressed.

The EcoChallenge brings Sherry both excitement and hope, not only in what the younger generation is doing, but how many are getting involved and the lasting impact the challenge has on them.

“When we are teaching these kids something so powerful at such a young age, they’re just going to continue it through the rest of their lives,” she said, describing them as lifelong eco-warriors.

Here are this year’s award winning eco-warriors in the Truckee/Tahoe Basin:

Little Fixers, Big Hearts

The Little Fixers, Big Hearts team from Truckee Elementary won first place in the Blue Square division for their winter coat drive, clothing repair event, and education on sustainable clothing practices. Their presentation on the environmental and social impacts of fast fashion reached every class in the school, all while their coat drive brought in 200 jackets and volunteers repaired 48.

School Service Association

The Glenshire Elementary School Service Association (SSA), once a trash duty team, sorting lunchroom trash, food waste, and recyclables, has grown into a community-wide cleanup initiative. The driven coalition of students, has organized the school and surrounding community for cleanups, inspiring eco-awareness and action. Their dedication won them the Blue Square second place prize.

Eco-Action Club – “The Trashcade”

The Eco-Action Club out of Tahoe City won first place in the Green Circle division for their art installation made from trash collected during underwater cleanups in Lake Tahoe. Called “The Trashcade,” it has stirred conversations, awareness and reached close to 24,000 people across schools, events, museums, and social media.

5th Grade Environmental Rock Band Musical

Truckee Elementary 5th graders took environmental awareness to the stage and performed a musical eco-adventure comedy, called The Environmental Show. The performance recycled costumes and taught 600 audience members about environmental staples such as composting, energy, pollution and stewardship. Their showmanship and thoughtfulness earned the class second place in the Green Circle category.

Up-Cyclers

The Truckee Up-Cyclers earned third place in the Green Circle division. True to the name, this team upcycled over 20 discarded clothing items and transformed them into eight new stylish outfits, showcasing not only eco-mindfulness, but sewing, fashion and embroidery skills.

The foundation awarded over $5,000 to the local challenge winners. The Tahoe/Truckee community has embraced the EcoChallenge with teachers regularly assigning the challenge to classes. Nationwide, the foundation awards over $27,000. Winning teams often re-invest the funds for more eco-minded ideas, such as bike racks at schools to promote alternative transportation.

What began as a regional Truckee/Tahoe challenge, has now grown to a national competition. Some projects, such as one involving removing golf balls from the ocean near the Pebble Beach Golf Course, have even led to policy change.

Many eco-winners and participators go on to pursue environmental activism as a career. That includes Riley Sherman, who won the Blue Square challenge in 2023.

“The Shane McConkey EcoChallenge actually pushed me to take the next step and do something,” he said. Sherman now interns for the Shane McConkey Foundation and plans on studying environmental policy in college.

Registration/signups for the 2026 challenge recently opened, allowing teams to receive updates, reminders, tools and guidance prior to the project submission deadline.

Teams can start their project anytime, and may even utilize multiple years. The deadline for submission is Earth Day each year.

For more information, visit, shanemcconkey.org/ecochallenge.