Students at Staunton Elementary School are slowly changing their school colors from blue and yellow to green as a result of recycling for Earth Day.
"In an effort to increase awareness of the importance of recycling and to make a positive difference within the school's community, we began a recycling program in October of 2008," Speech/Hearing Impaired teacher Janet Trout said.
The program invites teachers and students to recycle papers from their classrooms and it has stretched to other areas of the school, including the office, work areas, the kitchen and teacher's lounge. Recycled items include plastic, aluminum cans and cardboard. A container sits in the foyer between the gymnasium and double doors, which allows for easy drop-off access.
"Wallace Brothers Disposal provides a white dumpster for the recycling of the cardboard," Instructional Assistant Sandy Trousdale said. "It has been a great benefit with the recycling of the cardboard, especially from the kitchen, which receives many boxed food items."
Volunteers gather all of the recyclable items (except cardboard) once a week and take them to Goodwill Industries in Brazil or Terre Haute.
"By taking our recyclable items to Goodwill, we are able to help our society in two ways," Trout said. "Providing work for those who might not otherwise have a job and taking good care of our environment by saving trees and other natural resources."
"It is a privilege for us to be able to help Goodwill Industries," Trousdale said. "Items taken to Goodwill do not need to be sorted, because they have employees (do) that."
In honor of Earth Day, the student council has designated every Thursday in April as green day.
"The students and staff have been wearing green and doing green projects," first-grade teacher Lisa Miller said. "Students have learned about pollution and how to save and conserve our natural resources."
"It has really been amazing teaching the students about what they can keep and reuse," first-grade teacher Marci Nussel said.
Since October, 92 bags of paper, 30 bags of plastic, seven bags of aluminum cans and 19 dumpsters of cardboard have recycled by the students and teachers at Staunton.
Other area elementary schools are also working hard on Earth Day activities.
"Our fourth-grade classes at Meridian Elementary have a special activity in conjunction with Earth Day. The students were given an assignment to make/create something useful out of trash," fourth-grade teacher Leah Schuch. "For example, an empty plastic milk jug could be changed to become a watering container for flowers. The finished item must not look like the original trash. The children will be presenting their projects on Earth Day."
Schuch's class has been studying recycling.
"They are in the process of creating posters from recycled poster board of the different aspects of recycling," she said. "Our goal is to have those projects displayed by Earth Day."
"In some of my art classes, we have been creating posters about Earth Day," Meridian and East Side Elementary Schools Art Teacher Leslie Cordray said.
"My class is going to work on a project that involves the school as a whole. Recycling bins are set up in the cafeteria to recycle plastic bottles and aluminum. The money earned from this will go to the Clay County Medical Assistance Program," third-grade teacher Becky Jeffers said. "They are going to talk to other classes about the importance of recycling and the Medical Assistance Program as well as hanging posters around the school and making T-shirts."
On Thursday, students at Clay City Jr./Sr. High School will spend the afternoon outside honoring Earth Day with various activities.
"We will have a cookout for the students outside during the lunch periods. The last two hours of the day will be devoted to landscaping, planting flowers and tidying up the outside campus of our school," Principal Jeff Bell said.
"The entire school is involved in this and we delegate assignments by class."
Students at Northview High School are spending the week engaged in different activities with the theme "Oceans and shore lines." Speakers were in the Auditorium Monday and a T-shirt contest sponsored by the science classes as well as poems, stories and a banner contest through out the week. A convocation is scheduled for Friday on the football field, weather permitting, or activities will be moved to the gym.