February 25, 2008
FORSYTH COUNTY - Fourth-grader Andrew Dunn is an avid member of Daves Creek Elementary School's Green Team. He is convinced that the way to preserve the planet for his generation is by recycling.
"Recycling is such an easy thing to do," he said. "I try to make people more aware of it in my neighborhood."
This is Andrew's first year being involved with the Green Team, which is an environmental club open to fourth and fifth graders at his school.
Denise Carleton is the faculty member in charge of the club's activities.
"Each month I assign the children to perform an Act of Random Kindness (ARK) for the environment and planet. Andrew has been a true inspiration to all of us. He is a remarkable young person and is out there making a difference in our community and for our environment," said Carleton.
Andrew composes a letter to his neighbors each month, letting them know who he is and what is doing as a member of the Daves Creek Green Team.
"As a member of the Green Team I am responsible for a service project during this school year to help make people aware of how they can do some little things that really help the environment - most of which really don't take much effort at all. I decided to do my project on recycling," said Andrew.
Each month in his newsletter, Andrew announces what recyclable item or items he is collecting for the month and the collection date. He also lists results for what he collected the previous month with pictures.
"Andrew's follow-up reports to his neighbors surely inspires them to get involved in his effort and really think about what we put into our waste stream that is recyclable," said Carleton.
Andrew's father, Chip Dunn, is proud of his son's determination.
"He puts a lot of thought and work into this project," said Dunn. "He collects items that people may not even be aware are recyclable, like cell phones, batteries and printer cartridges."
Dunn is an enthusiastic supporter of Andrew's activities and often finds himself in the role of willing chauffeur, since he remarks that "someone has to drive the car" on the runs to Old Atlanta Recycling Center.
"I can recycle some of the items at school, like magazines and phone books. But some of the other items have to be transported to Old Atlanta Recycling Center," said Andrew.
His most unusual collection item was tennis shoes.
"The Girl Scouts were collecting shoes for a program sponsored by Nike called 'Reuse A Shoe.' I sort of got involved in that donation drive and ended up collecting 41 pairs to be used to make basketball courts and rubber playground flooring," said Andrew.
To date, Andrew has collected and kept out of our landfills: 129 phonebooks, 41 pairs of tennis shoes, 60.5 lbs. of household batteries, 21 printer cartridges and 1,093 magazines.
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