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NWP Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists - Lewis Central High School, Council Bluffs, Iowa, USA

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Lewis Central High School, Council Bluffs, Iowa, USA
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HayleyD123



Registered: November 2014
City/Town/Province: Council Bluffs
Posts: 1
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My name is Hayley, and I am currently a senior at Lewis Central High School in Council Bluffs, Iowa. There are approximately 900 students that attend LCHS, and I am among the most involved. I believe that through my extensive involvement in school activities (band, choir, speech, drama, National Honor Society, and Ecology Club, among many others), I have made connections with LCHS students that allows me to communicate with them effectively, and influence them in a positive way. Last year, a fellow Ecology Club member and I wanted to develop an environmental service project that we could use to impress the importance of recycling upon our student body. This spawned the idea of a “bottle monster.” Earth Day was fast approaching, and we decided that students should be aware of the number of plastic bottles they used in a month. So for an entire month, we came into school at 6:45 a.m. and stayed for an hour after school, rinsed out plastic bottles, removed their caps and labels, and assembled them into a 7-foot tall “monster.” This proved to be rather tedious work, and by the time the project was finished, we had accumulated more than 25 garbage bags full of plastic bottles. These were only the plastic bottles that were placed in recycling bins; at least one hundred additional bottles had been carelessly thrown away by students. When the monster had reached 7”, we decided it would be best to arrange the 200 additional bottles around the base of the structure instead of making it several feet taller, and those bottles formed a circle around the monster that was close to 5 feet in diameter. The bottle monster was on display in our school cafeteria for two weeks, and it certainly raised awareness for recycling in our student body. The whole Ecology Club gave detailed descriptions of the time and effort put into the bottle monster, and our personal testimonies left many students with wide eyes and gaping mouths. When they learned that nearly 1,000 bottles had been collected from our school in only one month, there were many comments along the lines of “Wow, I had no idea recycling was such a big deal,” and “If I had known we used so many bottles, I would carry a reusable one all the time.” We then transported our bottle monster to the middle school and put it on display, which raised some of the same questions. It was very rewarding to know that all of our hard work had helped change students’ recycling habits for the better. As a result of one idea and our power to influence the student body, the Ecology Club helped not one, but two schools become more environmentally conscious. Not only did this project affect our community, but it also helped me become more aware of my recycling habits. After fishing 100 bottles out of the trash, I no longer carelessly fling empty bottles into the trash can, even if that means scouring our entire school to find a recycling bin. I have realized that my own personal laziness and the convenience of plastic bottles caused me to contribute to the plethora of plastic bottles used in our school. After putting so much time and effort into the bottle monster, I decided that I would never again use a non-reusable water bottle, because laziness is not an excuse to harm the environment. This project truly changed my attitude toward our environment for the better, and I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. Our bottle monster was a creative and fun way to raise environmental awareness, and I firmly believe that it was a successful volunteer effort.
Date: November 19, 2014 Views: 4532 File size: 23.6kb, 152.1kb : 640 x 631
Hours Volunteered: 400
Volunteers: 11
Authors Age & Age Range of Volunteers: 17 & 16 to 50
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