Poland pupils show can-do spirit with recycling award
POLAND — Second-graders Nick Sabrin and Kaitlyn Battaglia had a secret weapon in their quest to collect aluminum cans for recycling: grandparents.
Their efforts and those of their fellow pupils at North Elementary paid off. The school received a plaque and a $5,000 check Friday from Novelis, an aluminum company with offices in Cleveland; the U.S. Conference of Mayors; and Keep America Beautiful’s Cash for Cans contest.
The award recognized the creative ways the pupils, their families, school faculty and staff collected cans for recycling.
To make the contest interesting, Poland and Canfield competed to see who could collect the most cans. Poland won.
“When I knew we were competing against Canfield, I was telling my grandpa,” Nick, 8, explained. “He told me that my great-grandma has a lot of aluminum cans in the garage.”
Boy, did she.
Nick’s family had to use a dump truck to transport all of the cans to the school, he said.
“She just kept them in her garage over the years and she drinks pop a lot,” Nick said.
Kaitlyn, 7, relied on help from her grandma, too.
“I asked my grandma to save cans and one day she told me she brought three trash bags [full of cans] to school,” she said.
Principal Mike Masucci said the school also set up a large trash receptacle at the high school stadium leading up to the football matchup last fall between Poland and Canfield
Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com