Be Green students bringing recyclables to bins at Gateway. (Photo by Amy Porter)
HUNTINGTON – Last Wednesday, several alumnae of the “Be Green” club at Gateway Regional returned after eleven years to see how the program has advanced, and to welcome students from Hampden Charter School of Science in Chicopee, where original student founder Kathleen Ryan now teaches environmental science. The Be Green team at Gateway is comprised of student members who promote environmental awareness through recycling and sustainability practices.
Along with Ryan, other returning students from the first Be Green club in 2006-2007 included Annie Skerry, Natalie Tacke and Jenna Swochek. The Be Green club was formed after Ryan started a petition urging recycling at the school during her senior year. That first year, with the help of then librarian Glenda Donovan, they piloted a modest paper and cardboard recycling program in the high school.
After Ryan graduated, Tacke became the president during her senior year. Tacke said the students picked up the recycling every day during their volunteer advisory period, and walked it out to a giant dumpster outside that Donovan had gotten for free for the program from a grant. Donovan could not attend the group reunion on Wednesday, but sent an email congratulating all “who continued the call.”
Hampden Charter School of Science students discuss recycling at their school. (Photo by Amy Porter)
“It’s wonderful that the administration has always been so supportive of this,” Donovan wrote.
By the fall of 2011, the group had grown to 30 student members, recycling had been implemented in all five Gateway schools, and the Be Green group launched single stream recycling—papers, cardboard and plastic—across the school district.
Be Green was recognized with an Environmental Eagles designation by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection in May 2012. The certificate recognized the actions taken by the group for their “outstanding efforts to increase recycling and pollution prevention in their school and community.”
Currently, the Be Green team at Gateway Regional is led by Life Skills students and general education volunteers, under para-professional Bonnie Rankey.
Rankey said the Life Skills students were previously recycling as a job, and taking over the Be Green club made it “official.” She said the group collects recycling from classroom bins in the high school, middle school, Chester and Littleville elementary schools on Wednesday mornings. One of the students in the Be Green program commented that recycled items are now much more plentiful than trash during pickups.
Original Be Green club members Kathleen Ryan, Annie Skerry, Natalie Tacke and Jenna Swochek. (Photo by Amy Porter)
Gateway Community Relations director Wendy Long said the Be Green group is also working on researching an affordable alternative to plastic for use in the cafeteria. Long also said she was excited to see the original members return to Gateway for the visit.
The students from Chicopee were impressed by the bins and the ramp that had been built to empty the recycling. At their school, they said trash is separated, but they don’t know what happens to it when it is emptied, and some thought it all went in the same dumpster.
Ryan said she hopes to get the students at her school more involved in the recycling effort, and more conscious of the importance of recycling to the environment. Long suggested emphasizing to administrators that recycling is also a money-saver for the school.
