Lenwood first-graders chip in to feed seniors

LENWOOD • If your New Year’s resolutions included anything about making the Earth a greener place or appreciating your grandparents more, take a hint from the first graders at Lenwood Elementary School.

The four first grade classes have teamed together to collect bottles and cans to recycle and raise money to provide Meals on Wheels services to homebound senior citizens in Lenwood.

The classes are working in conjunction with the Barstow Senior Center to locate homebound citizens who needed meals.

So far this school year, the first grade classes have raised $80, according to first grade teacher Ginger O’Brien, which equals about 1,500 cans, which in turn equals about 16 delivered meals that cost $4.86 per person.

Each week, one of the four classes visits the other classrooms and collects recyclable materials.  They’ve also been known to volunteer to pick up trash during recess, which, O’Brien said, is only because wearing plastic gloves has a certain curious draw for her students.

While the first graders — also known at Lenwood as the Recycle Rangers — are spearheading the recycling effort, the project extends beyond just the four classrooms.

“The whole school helps participate,” said Debbie Williams, another first grade teacher at Lenwood.

O’Brien credits the school secretary, Dora Crist, with managing the donations that get dropped off in the front office, and Nehemiah Jackson, a part-time substitute teacher with a pick-up truck, with helping sort and redeem the cans at local grocery stores.

Among the first graders, the idea seems to be catching on.

Parents have told O’Brien that their children have sprung newfound interests in recycling cans and bottles, and saving the Earth.  She heard of one child who instructed her grandmother to recycle, saying, “Grandma, we have to recycle — the earth depends on it!”

O’Brien said she got the idea to channel her class’s recycling effort into another aspect of community service from a Desert Dispatch report on homebound residents — many who are either seniors or have disabilities — who seldom have contact with the outside world.

While the recycling program is sponsoring a senior citizen for the first time, the recycling program has been raising money for various causes for the last four years.

The first year, O’Brien said the school raised $300 and bought an acre of desert land for the desert tortoise, a threatened species.

This year, O’Brien hopes that the Recycle Rangers will be able to raise enough money to support a senior even when school lets out for summer vacation. She’s also planning on building ongoing relationships with the seniors that the classes sponsor, so that students can write letters and send them pictures.

For now though, O’Brien is happy with the thought of keeping less bottles out of landfills while helping seniors.

“It served a dual purpose,” she said.

“We have limited capacities to bury our trash,” said O’Brien. “We have to start changing our ways.”

And O’Brien and the Recycle Rangers are leading the way.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4122 or elee@desertdispatch.com

Want to pitch in? Here are some tips:
• Make sure all donated bottles and cans are labeled with a California redemption code.
• Rinsing cans and bottles helps eliminate stickiness.
• The school is also recycling clean untorn grocery bags (no black plastic).
• Recyclables can be sent to school with your student or directly dropped off at the Lenwood Elementary School’s front office.
• If you have questions or want more information, contact Dora Crist, Lenwood Elementary School secretary, at (760) 253-7713.