It might not seem that one elementary student can do much to help the environment, but a whole school is doing what it can to show it cares.
Bullskin Township Elementary kindergarten teacher Leanne Bell began a schoolwide aluminum can recycling program about seven years ago in conjunction with Earth Day.
"It just started out as an idea to help save the Earth as well as a good fundraiser for the PTG," Bell said.
Little did she know how big the project would become. Recently, the project raised more than $2,000.
"It's a schoolwide competition," Bell said. "For the entire week, the students bring in as many aluminum cans as they can, and at the end of the week, the room that brings in the most gets a pizza party."
Whenever anything is set up in a competition-style event, kids naturally tend to get involved, she said.
In fact, one boy alone brought in more than 10,000 cans over the years.
"The parents really get involved too," Bell said. "They like it because it's a fundraiser where they don't have to sell anything or buy anything - they just let their kids bring in their aluminum garbage."
Student Dylan Sheets said he saves up cans all year just to bring in during the collection week at the school.
"My grandmother and most of the people I know save their cans for me, and then I bring them in for the can drive," he said.
School Principal John Relovsky said he's witnessed kids dragging bags of aluminum cans to class.
"It's a nice community project, and it's what the week is for," he said. "We're supposed to help clean up the environment, and this is people taking an active role in doing that."
He added that the event might even bring awareness to the students about littering.
"Maybe they won't be so apt to throw garbage out the window after they learn about the meaning and purpose of Earth Day," Relovsky said.
While Bell concedes there wouldn't be a can drive without the support of the parents and the participation of the students, she added that it wouldn't be as successful as it is without the donations of a tri-axle dump bed by Lester Cavanaugh and Cavanaugh Trucking. The bed is used to store the cans for the week and transport them to the recycling center.
"For the past six years, Mr. Cavanaugh has volunteered to donate a truck to us because he wants to support the kids and do his part to help save the Earth," Bell said.
Bell said the first year she had to store all the cans in her garage and then find a way to get them to the recycling center.
"I just don't know if we would have been able to continue doing this event if we didn't have the truck," she said.
Relovsky said members of the Bullskin Township community have always been willing to help.
"Most of the time the community really jumps in when we have fundraisers," he said. "The support is always there. We're very lucky."
