Five Hills royalty get dirty with Keep Copperas Cove Beautiful

Special to Leader-Press 

From making pizzas out of recycled materials to cleaning under the concrete overpasses flanking the ravine at Copperas Cove’s Town Square Shopping Center, the city’s titleholders demonstrated commitment to keep the City Built for Family Living clean and beautiful.
The Copperas Cove Five Hills royalty participated in Keep Copperas Cove Beautiful’s first open house event. Youngsters learned how to make bracelets out of plastic drinking straws and yarn, make biodegradable planting pots from old newspapers, and built mock pizzas out of recycled materials learning the percentage of various recycled materials that are collected in Copperas Cove on a regular basis.
Junior Miss Five Hills Hayley Sawyer, 8, said the volunteers staffing the various stations at the open house event were really nice and she enjoyed the activities.
“It was an awesome event where they educate you about recycling and what they do,” Sawyer said. “I learned things I didn’t know before about recycling. “
A paper pizza had children placing a mixture of recycled materials on the correct pizza slice that corresponded with the item, also including the percentage of that specific material that is collected in Copperas Cove.
The newly crowned titleholders contributed to those percentages with their participation in the Great Texas Trash Off. Of the 136 volunteers that participated, the Copperas Cove Five Hills royalty comprised the largest participating group with 36 volunteers who, despite the rain, gathered eight bags of trash from the ditch and under the bridges at the Town Square Shopping Center. 
The state-wide clean-up effort was the first trash collection in which Junior Mister Five Hills Jackson Gibbs, 6, participated.
“I had a lot of fun,” Gibbs said. “You should always pick up trash and recycle. I want to help keep our city clean.”