Brownies purchase 25 recycling bins for Westlake grade school
By Stephanie Bertholdo bertholdo@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers GOING GREEN- Members of Brownie Troop 25 present recycling bins financed by Girl Scout cookie sales to their school, White Oak Elementary, during an assembly last week.

Thanks to Brownie Troop 25, White Oak Elementary School in Westlake Village is helping to save the environment, a bottle or scrap of paper at a time.

The school's recycling efforts got underway with the green thinking of Jemma Wildermuth, a parent at the school and leader of the thirdgrade troop, said Susan Wachtel, a first-grade teacher at the school.

"Jemma saw a need at White Oak," Wachtel said. "There was no way to properly recycle our paper and bottles. She saw the classroom teachers cringing every time they had to toss paper or put water bottles in the regular trash. She saw hundreds of water bottles being thrown away during a week of lunch periods without being recycled. She often went into her children's classes and took the things home to recycle properly."

Wildermuth guided the Brownie troop's efforts and earlier this month helped the girls purchase recycling bins for every class said Wachtel.

The school conducted an assembly to mark the commitment to thinking green.

"The kids right away starting recycling," said Chris Stavich, co-leader of the troop. It's the best thing ever."

Stavich said the troop paid for 25 classroom bins through profits made from cookie sales. The girls also brought in larger bins donated by the G.I. Rubbish Co.

Monitors in each class dump plastic items, Styrofoam boxes, glass goods and other material designated recyclable into the larger bins, which is picked up for free by G.I. Rubbish.

"We're trying to become little monitors on the campus," Stavich said of the girls. "We want it to become second nature to students to recycle, and to continue in the home."

Grace Stavich, 8, is proud of her Brownie troop and her school's willingness to help save the planet. "I like that the program teaches kids to recycle," she said. "The recycle bin in the center space (of the classroom) is overflowing."