Wilmot Elementary School's Green Team Superheroes have started a new campaign to help the planet.
Once a month, the fourth- and fifth-graders spend about two hours in the cafeteria to help fellow students recycle some items and compost fruits and vegetables rather than throwing all of it in the trash.
The 14 team members learned from the owners of Purple Bucket Compost in Bailey about what can be composted, and the team uses the company’s signature purple buckets for the composted material. Purple Bucket collects the buckets and adds their contents to its compost piles.
On the third Wednesday of the month, the Superheroes wearing their green capes are stationed in the cafeteria to explain recycling and composting, and to walk the students through the multi-step process.
First, they give a presentation on what they’re doing. Then students drop off their milk cartons at one station, add fruits and vegetables to the purple buckets, put any other recyclable materials into a separate bin, throw away anything that can’t be recycled or composted and put their compostable hot-lunch trays in a pile.
Finally, each student gets a sticker for participating.
Fifth grader Ruby Pursley explained that the Green Team Superheroes do everything they can to help the Earth. Last year, the team had a contest among the classrooms to see which class could recycle the most, hoping to make it a fun activity.
“This year, we wanted to start composting to help the environment,” Ruby explained. “We take the fruit and vegetables and use them to make soil.”
“For me,” fifth grader Brynn Portillo explained, “I want to save the Earth. The Earth is getting sicker and sicker, and I want to help it.”
Since their inception in 2018, the Green Team Superheroes have worked on several ways to help the planet including reducing the amount of energy used throughout the school.
Parent Lisa Dewil spearheaded the Superheroes at Wilmot in 2018 after attending a conference in Denver. The program is primarily student-centered, and it has expanded to other elementary schools in the foothills.
Dewil said last year, the Superheroes ran a pumpkin smash in conjunction with the Evergreen Sustainability Alliance, with composting broken pumpkins paving the way for the students to think about a composting program in the cafeteria.
“Next year, we’ll assess how things are going (with the monthly lunch composting program),” Dewil said. “Maybe we can introduce more days for lunch composting. One day, we’ll have a big composting program at the school.”
