Saving the Earth, a bag at a time

SHENANDOAH, Iowa — Environmental consciousness is now more important than ever, says Shenandoah Middle School student Catherine Stout, who made it the topic of her project for a school organization.

“Our planet is to the point where we haven't really taken care of it in the right way, and this is the spot where we can turn it around,” Catherine said. “We all have to do our part.”

The eighth-grader is working on her STAR Event (Students Taking Action with Recognition) project for the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America. The projects build leadership and job-related skills.

The focus of Catherine's project is recycling. The first step is using scrap fabric to make reusable shopping bags. The bags eliminate the need for paper or plastic bags while giving scrap fabric a second life.

“It's important to reuse things, because there's not much of our resources left,” Catherine said.

The idea for the bags actually came from Shenandoah seventh and eighth grade family consumer science teacher Sue Altizer.

“It happened this summer when I was traveling and looking in some stores and saw these recycling bags,” Altizer said. “I thought, ‘Why can't we do that?'”

Catherine has been working on the project for a while. Classmates help her sew the bags.

“Mrs. Altizer said she would take the liberty of having everyone make one,” Catherine said. “It's basically free labor.”

Each student will get a bag to take home.

“Catherine is doing an excellent job,” Altizer said. “She got excited about it, and she is making sure that every family in FCS class has a recycle bag.”

All the bags they will take home are made from recycled fabric and cost the students nothing.

“I had some fabric at home so the kids can make something that they can take with them and also help save the Earth at the same time,” Altizer said.

The class is working on other recycling projects such as making oven mitts out of recycled jeans and scarfs out of leftover pieces of fabric.

“This is the first step we're doing so far, and we are going to do more recycling projects like this,” said Catherine.

Next spring she will present her project to the judges at the district competition. From there she is hoping to advance to state and then nationals, which will be held in Chicago.

“We give a presentation and say what we've done and who helped us,” Catherine said of the competition.

Altizer said she is very pleased with the recycling project.

Most important, she said, the students are learning a valuable lesson: “Keep the Earth green. You can make something that is usable and Earth-friendly.”

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