By Khalida Sarwari
The students at Saratoga’s Sacred Heart School know a little more about recycling today than they did just a few weeks ago, thanks to a sixth-grade Girl Scout troop that organized a range of activities at the school to raise awareness and inform students about the importance of “going green.”
The scouts’ “Green Week” initiative was part of their journey to “discover special skills and talents, connect with others and take action to make the world a better place.”
The girls began this journey by studying technologies and careers related to clean air. After spending some time visiting with scientists at various institutions around the Bay Area–including the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Hiller Aviation Museum and science labs at UC-Santa Cruz–they agreed to home in on recycling for the next phase of their project. They wanted their school community to realize how easy recycling is and yet how much of an impact it has on the Earth, said 11-year-old Francesca Bermudez, a sixth-grader at Sacred Heart and a member of Troop 61256.
They knew that their school could improve on that skill, Francesca added.
The girls organized an activity for every day of the week. They created posters informing students about what to throw in each waste disposal bin and routinely monitored the bins during lunchtime and recess.
They started the week by performing a skit during the morning assembly in which they educated their fellow students about what is and what isn’t recyclable. On Tuesday, they performed a catchy rap about the basics of recycling, and on Wednesday they hosted officials from the West Valley Collection and Recycling center for a presentation during a schoolwide assembly.
The following day, the troop offered an incentive for students who brought a reusable water bottle to school to substitute their regular school uniform for an outfit of their choice for the day, as long as they wore something green.
Also on Thursday, the students were instructed to take a pledge on the school’s internal website committing to at least one act of helping the environment. The choices were plentiful and included everything from packing a school lunch in a reusable container and bringing reusable water bottles to school to taking a five-minute shower. Students also had the options of pledging to turn off the water while brushing their teeth, recycling all homework and test papers that they no longer needed, creating an art project from something in the recycling bin and programming the dishwasher and washing machines to run in the middle of the night as opposed to during the day.
“In nighttime it wastes less water and in the morning you’ll have the dishes ready,” Francesca said.
Some of the activities the students were encouraged to do were as easy as completely powering down all electronics by 9 p.m., placing leftovers in a reusable container instead of using baggies, turning off the lights when leaving a room and replacing half an hour of computer or TV time with 30 minutes of spending time outdoors or reading.
And the best part? Everyone who participated were eligible to be entered in a raffle to win a basket of Girl Scout cookies.
But, the work does not end with cookies. Francesca said she hopes the momentum the student body built throughout the week will continue to have a positive impact at Sacred Heart.
“One of my duties is I need to talk to the student council supervisors,” she said. “We’re going to ask them if they can continue having ‘Green Day’ at least once a month.”
Along with Francesca, the other members of Troop 61256 who organized and participated in the Green Week events were Elizabeth Ball, Olivia Baumert, Katie Fritch, Rose Gatlin, Alexandria Lopez and Maureen Mailhot.
