As members of the Global Citizens club, Mary Buren Elementary School fifth-graders are using their worldwide thinking to act locally by embarking on community-minded projects to help migrant families in the area.
Through a recycling drive, students have already earned $100 for their efforts. Fifth-grader Nathalie Deras masterminded the recycling project when she noticed many of her fellow students drinking water out of plastic bottles at school. So she partnered up with her friends Amy Bejarno and Jazmin Felix and began making presentations to other classrooms.
“I wanted to do something to help raise money for migrant families, clean up the school, and help others,” Deras said in a press release, “and we are doing it.”
Bottles are collected in baskets and taken to the Guadalupe Recycling Center. Students take the cash they reap in return and put it into a student bank account.
That money will be used to buy jackets, create bilingual welcome cards, and/or make holiday baskets. Students are also bringing in food donations to help with the cause.
In the press release, fifth-grade teacher Jan Sprague said she’s proud of her students because they are dialed into a project that’s improving the school, community, and world.
“I want them to see how a little bit begins to turn into enough to really make a difference,” Sprague said in the release.
This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 4, 2013.