Copperas Cove’s Hettie Halstead Elementary wins Fort Hood Recycle Bowl

By WENDY SLEDD

Special to Leader-Press

Copperas Cove ISD’s Hettie Halstead Elementary is the winner of this year’s Fort Hood Recycle Bowl. Student Council members collected 5,212.90 pounds of recyclables in a 30-day period through Fort Hood’s Youth Environmental Ambassadors! Program.

Capturing first place resulted in the school receiving a plaque made from recycled glass and a cash award. The contest includes both public and private schools in the nine school districts surrounding Fort Hood.

"It was really fun, and I loved participating in the recycle bowl for my community." fourth grader Zoey Hogan said.

Students picked up classroom recycling weekly including in the library, offices, and all common areas, weighing the amount and recording it for the competition. The result was more than 461,000 pieces of paper collected.  

The school participated in multiple initiatives of the YEA! program including the Lights Out Lunch where the lights are turned out in the lunchroom to save energy; collected used notebooks through the Beyond the Writing contest; and school beautification where student council members picked up trash throughout the school grounds quarterly and decorated the front sidewalks with encouraging messages and pictures. Hettie Halstead Elementary also had four students, Savion Solomon, Kaybriegh Busby, Mila Wagner, and Izaiah Price, who won the annual Fort Hood YEA! Recycle Poster Contest. The students’ artwork will be featured in a 2023 monthly calendar produced by the Fort Hood Environmental Services Division.

“These challenges helped our student council members to take charge and sharpen their leadership game,” said student council adviser, Swantje Drayton.

New initiatives have been added to the YEA! program to include schools collecting pop tabs from aluminum cans and collecting various plastics in conjunction with the annual school beautification challenge.

Juggling the different contests throughout the school year in addition to maintaining good grades and participating in extra-curricular activities requires the students to develop strong time management skills.

"At times, it is tough having all these responsibilities, but it's worth it being able to help the earth," said fifth grader Michael Coughlin.

Copperas Cove ISD has placed in the top three schools for the Recycle Bowl four times in the past five years.

"It's good to keep the earth clean for future generations,” said fifth grader Savion Soloman. “No matter how hard it is, keep going for your goals."  

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