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Lewis Co. elementary students get "excited to begin recycling," part of leadership program; city provided collection bins to their school
Ledger-Independent, Maysville, March 31, 2016

Recycling helping kids become leaders
by CHRISTY HOOTS

VANCEBURG -- Students at Lewis County's Central Elementary School are being given the opportunity to learn what it means to recycle through the Leader in Me program.

On Monday, March 21, Vanceburg Mayor Matt Ginn visited the school to drop off several recycling bins for the students to use. Those bins include one for every classroom, three larger bins and one rollback.

Principal Stacy Kidwell said the students will use the bins to recycle every Friday.

"We have students from each grade level and on Fridays they will bring down the recycling," Kidwell said. "Our fourth and fifth grade students will actually take the recycling outside to the large container."

Kidwell said the students are involved as a part of the Leader in Me program, which teaches students leadership and life skills to help them succeed.

"This is the perfect opportunity to get them involved in something that benefits the school," she said.

According to Kidwell, the students are excited to begin recycling.

"They're very excited," she said. "We try to involve as many different kids as possible. You always have some kids who are natural leaders who are already involved in a lot of things, so we're trying to include kids who are not usually involved. We have a good group who seem to be excited. It's giving them some responsibility and making them feel important."

Fifth grade students Kayla Sullivan, 11, and Austin Reis, 11, said they are looking forward to recycling.

"I'm definitely excited," Reis said. "We haven't done much yet. We're going to recycle every Friday. It's good for the environment and we're going to be helping to save trees."

"It's better for the school," Sullivan said. "It's important for the environment and I'm excited to get to do it."

Ginn said he was pleased to see the students excited about becoming involved in the recycling program.

"I think it's great the students at Lewis County have come together to teach the kids to recycle. Hopefully it's something that sticks with them throughout the years. It's a major benefit to the community. The money we raise from selling the recycling will go back into building and maintaining what we do have for the children here."