This is a guest post by Melanie Hunter, Vice President of Maynard High School’s Green Committee. 

Maynard’s a small town, but it’s filled with ambition. And even if not everyone’s a “green freak” like me, they’re always willing to help. That’s what’s awesome about the event that happened on January 26th at my high school, Maynard High. It was our second annual Mid-Year Locker Cleanout. Last year, it was a big hit planned by Green Committee President Marilyn Moser (’11) and Vice President Thamires Nunes (’12).

And this year, it was even better when the National Honor Society and Green Committee joined forces in an effort to clean lockers and encourage students to recycle paper, bottles and cans. “There’s always someone who’s uncertain what goes where, if it can be recycled or not,” says physics teacher Philip Grandin. But with a more organized system of placing two bins on opposite ends of the hall, one for paper, the other for bottles and cans, students found it more difficult to walk to the garbage when they knew they should be recycling. “That’s the whole point of it,” states chemistry teacher Rochelle Lerner “to get students to be conscious about where their items are going.”

There was even a box for donations on each end of the hall. This is where students could give away materials such as books, book covers, notebooks, folders, and pencils. And while they may not need them any longer, someone else will always put them to use. Last year, almost two cardboard boxes were filled and brought to the Resources for Rhode Island Education in Providence, Rhode Island by Maynard physics teacher Philip Grandin. He is an advisor of MHS Green Committee, along with Maynard chemistry teacher Rochelle Lerner. All in all, the Green Committee filled seven recycling bins, totaling about 600 pounds of paper, bottles, and cans.

That’s less than last year, when we collected around 2,000 pounds, but nonetheless, we’re proud of our accomplishment! Thanks to the $200 grant that we won on attending the ACE Leadership Training on April 2, 2011, we had an awesome Green Week and used the money to incorporate the locker cleanout. It was such a big success that we decided to make it an annual event for years to come. Maynard High may be a small school, but like I said, it’s got tons of ambition!