Students do their part in recycling effort

Casey Ressler - Frontiersman Valley Life editor

Debbie Hajduk's second-grade class at Finger Lake Elementary School is chipping in and helping Valley recycling efforts in several ways.

Each week, students from her class go around the school, pulling a little red wagon, and collect recyclable materials such as paper and aluminum cans. They deposit them in bins located at the school, which were built as part of a grant.

But Thursday, they chipped in with a bigger effort. The students donated $1,000 to Valley Community for Recycling Solutions (VCRS), which will help fund a new community recycling center.

"That's a lot of money for students to come up with to help make a community recycling center a reality," said Mollie Boyer, the director of VCRS. "They did a great job."

Hajduk said her students enjoy recycling because they know it makes a difference.

"It's something they can do to help out, and I think they like that sense of accomplishment," Hajduk said last week.

A grant initially paid for the recycling efforts, but the facilities could use a little bit of a facelift. The plywood bins will eventually need to be replaced, and the little red wagon the students use has sides that are starting to topple, and new sides -- or a new wagon -- will be needed in the future.