Happy St. Plastics Day!
The DCMS Eco-School Club 2010
On St. Patrick’s Day, I went to celebrate with the Deep Creek Middle School kids from the Eco-School Club (2010). There, I met seven seventh graders working on projects that are eco-minded. During my visit, they gave me the pleasure of sharing their work and their points of view.
First, they all wore smart-looking t-shirts, with St. Patty’s green colors… well, it may have more to do with eco-green, but it just happened to suit the occasion on that day. On the front of their t-shirts was the phrase, “DCMS can be GREEN if we work as a TEAM“; on the back, it gets even better:
Too Much Garbage
Too Much Plastic
Too Much Aluminim
Too Much Paper
—
Help us with our recycling project.
They take time out of their lunch break, every Wednesday, to work as a team. I was shown the recycling bins behind their classrooms; then they talked about how people in the community are starting to contribute their home-based cans and bottles. Each item placed in their bins brings back money to the kids at DCMS, while earning that extra value of excitement and community pride!
They also told me about the upcoming “Green Flag” competition, an honor granted through the Eco-School Project from the Foundation for Environmental Education. The students tested various ideas and decided on using trash separation and recycling as the core of their project. The results are yet-to-be-decided and I know where my vote would go.
The kids have already learned a lot and it showed. They know that it’s not as simple as putting out labeled trash bins for paper, metal, and plastic; then again, they also know that it can be as easy as that – but only if everyone does their part. It is the small efforts by each individual that makes a bigger difference for the whole group. These kids are doing the hard work, by putting together a system and “monitoring” it – which includes getting their hands into it. Nothing good comes easy and this is no exception. Hopefully, their peers and parents will see this and make that small change of support.
Here’s to the Eco-School Club at the Deep Creek Middle School in Deep Creek, Eleuthera, The Bahamas:
Hershal Knowles
Moesha Leary
Brittany Gibson
Treshae Clarke
Janique Newbold
Jovanna Sands
Nickeva Griffin
9th grader, Glenroy Miller, with Principal Joanna Paul
Later, I interviewed one of the ninth-graders, Glenroy Miller. He told me about their upcoming “guerilla art” campaign, which they plan on placing at street corners; to raise awareness about waste and recycling. By taking waste and making it into art, they want people to not only see trash but to see it in a different way.
As Steve Trash, the “Rockin’ Eco-Hero” likes to say, “You can’t do everything to protect our environment… but you can do something.”
So, here’s to doing something – today, tomorrow, the next day, and here on out!
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