Students Get Recycling Bin, Visit by the Mayor

Children at St. Polycarp Catholic School learned a real-life lesson in civics last week when the city’s mayor appeared in person to respond to a letter from Janeen Broussard’s fourth-grade class.

The students, excited about their environment-related studies in the classroom, embarked on a mission to recycle the paper they used at school. Every night a different student carried the day’s recyclables home to put in the family recycling bin.

Though they were pleased with having become eco-students, the fourth-grade class believed having a recycling container on campus would be a better alternative, so the entire school could recycle paper.

They sent a letter to Mayor Harry Dotson, who delivered the bin in person on Tuesday.

“They loved having him come out,” Broussard said. They got to see that getting involved with a cause can pay off, she said.

“We wrote a lot of letters this year that went unanswered,” she added.

“They not only got a response from the mayor but he told them how glad he was that they recycled and that they were saving the earth for us.”