Students win grant for civic-minded, student-led clean-up days
by Jennifer Ferguson
February 23, 2010
Joseph Arthur Middle School is the recipient of a $26,000 grant from the State Farm Youth Advisory Board. The grant, which is focused on service learning, will allow students to coordinate, plan and implement a project called Working to Reuse. The Middle School will be awarded the grant at a check presentation on Monday, Feb. 22, 2010 at 1:00 p.m. in Joseph Arthur Middle School’s multi-purpose room.
Working to Reuse will allow students to provide leaf, branch and general lawn debris pick-up for residents located around an eight-block radius from the school on select days. Once collected, students will then compost the material for use in the school’s community garden.
“Students and parents will go out into the community and use tarps, shovels, rakes and adult supervised machinery that will enable them to collect the debris and compost it for use in our garden,” said Patrick Anderson, principal.
To win the grant, student council members came up with a project that met certain requirements. The project had to be based in service learning, linked to curriculum, led by students and address a specific issue category, which in this case is environmental responsibility.
“We are working hard to be environmentally responsible while at the same time creating a sense of civic duty in our students,” said Anderson. “This is such a wonderful project for the students to do because it will eliminate some of the waste that goes into local landfills, provide top soil and fertilizer to the garden, and help to provide food for ourselves and others as we will grow an abundance of tomatoes, squash, corn, beans, and other healthy foods.”
Students at Joseph Arthur Middle School will be involved in Working to Reuse every step of the way. Student council members will work to recruit other students as participants, plan logistics of the project and train younger students as leaders so that the project will continue for years to come.
“Students not only came up with the project idea, but they will map the best routes, times, number of people involved and tools needed to execute the project,” said Gina James, student council advisor. “This is really a wonderful way for them to give back to the community.”
Working to Reuse will also give back to the students in the classroom as it has been incorporated into many lesson plans and curriculum. In science, students are learning about botany and genetics; in health about good nutrition and healthy lifestyles; in social science the impact of human life on the environment.
The funding provided by the grant will allow students to get the supplies and equipment necessary for the project such as a debris vacuum and chipper, dump trailer, hand tools, compost tumblers and small storage shed.
Two days have been chosen as spring clean up days so far – April 10 and May 7.
