11:45am | Fifth-graders at many Long Beach Unified elementary schools participated in graduation ceremonies Thursday to commemorate the students’ move to middle school in the fall, including the fifth-graders at Birney Elementary School.
These students, however, did not solely focus on their accomplishments during the West Spring Street school’s commencement activities. The fifth-graders at Birney took some time out from their graduation ceremony to acknowledge a local metal recycling and processing company with which they partnered earlier in the school year.
SA Recycling’s David Thornburg said the students presented SA Recycling with a certificate of achievement and honored the company’s willingness to assist them in their efforts to launch a school-wide recycling program. SA provided several of its blue recycling bins to locate on campus.
But the students’ efforts didn’t stop there. They chose to use the money they raised from recycling to further aid the environment.
The students “decided this year that they needed to step up, to do something about the environment, by saving rain forests,” Thornburg said.
So they went about collecting CRV cans and bottles, and SA paid the class the CRV value of the cans and bottles they turned in to the company. Over the course of just more than two months, the class raised roughly $1,500, allowing them to purchase more than an acre of rainforest.
“They have made a lasting mark on the world by raising enough money to purchase over an acre and a quarter of rain forest property forever,” Thornburg said.
While honoring SA Recycling yesterday, the students challenged the school and the Terminal-Island based company to continue the recycling program next year beginning in September. It is hoped that by starting early next year, the school would be able to purchase a much larger portion of rainforest.
Photo above: Birney Elementary School Principal Thomas Espinoza, left, fifth-grade teacher Deborah Kearn, center, and SA Recycling’s David Thornburg stand at the podium during the West Spring Street school’s fifth-grade graduation Thursday, June 16, which was held outdoors despite the drizzle. The fifth-grade class took time out from its commencement ceremonies to honor SA Recycling for its assistance with the students’ efforts to launch a campus recycling program in order to raise funds to purchase, and thus preserve, a plot of rainforest land. Kearn served as the class adviser for the project. Photo courtesy of Dan Thornburg.