A group of fifth grade Girl Scouts from Junior Troop 66780 spent the spring recycling styrofoam lunch trays at High Plain Elementary School to earn their Bronze Award.
According to school records, the girls recycled just under 9,000 trays during the seven weeks of their project.
The Scouts include Mia Galat, Olivia Gillman, Lyndsey Grava, Paige Long, Becca Nash, Madison Quill, Julia Sergeant and Kaleigh Stuart.
Prior to working toward their Bronze Award, the girls completed a Junior Journey which focused on ways to help Lazarus House in Lawrence.
The Bronze Award is a team-based project for Junior Girl Scouts and the highest award a Junior Girl Scout can earn. The group "Take Action Project" for the Bronze Award is supposed to focus on something the girls care about that they would like to improve within their Girl Scout or local community and to put the Girl Scout Promise and Law into Action. The team started recycling lunch trays on March 19 and continued until May 11.
Prior to the start of the project, the girls made and put up posters advertising the event, made an announcement on the student news and wrote an article for the student newspaper.
To recycle the trays, the girls researched the possibility of free local styrofoam recycling events and cleaned the trays after school every day. The first week of the project the girls helped the younger students during the lunch hour, showing them where and how to put their used trays. Six of the team members attended the first recycling event on April 22 at the Lowell Earth Day celebration. They dropped off approximately 4,500 trays for recycling and spoke to Barbara Sherman of Refoamit to learn more about styrofoam recycling. Two of the team members attended a second recycling event on May 12 at the Tewksbury library where they dropped off another 4,500 trays.
The girls were supported by their parents, all of the High Plain Elementary students, Principal Pam Lathrop, the High Plain teachers and particularly the High Plain janitorial staff, Danny Dowd and Paul McCarthy.
