Deasy first-grade bilingual education teacher and Outdoor Education Committee member Michelle Mardiney planted a tiny seed in the minds of her fellow committee members – a schoolwide recycling program that involves students bringing empty water bottles to school.
Each week, the water bottles are counted by the students and their classroom teachers. The water bottles are then collected by Mrs. Mardiney and recycled at local supermarkets. At the end of the month, the weekly water bottle totals are added and the class with the most water bottles collected receives a special award and visit from “Captain Recycle.” The award is reused by passing it onto the next month’s top-collecting class.
At the end of the school year, the Deasy classes will submit suggestions for items they would like to see added to their outdoor classroom space with the money raised. The outdoor classroom space, imagined and planned by the Deasy Outdoor Classroom Committee, was created in the summer of 2018 with the assistance of the Glen Cove Education Foundation.
The recycling program promotes environmental respect, responsibility, compassion and awareness. It also shows the students that while one water bottle may only be worth a small amount, when students work like a team towards a common goal, they can achieve much more than one can achieve alone.