Kipevu Bottle Drive as Prefect of Environments

Kipevu Primary School's most pressing concern is security. Within school grounds, students are prone to harassment by trespassers. In order to solve this issue, a wall was needed to enclose their campus. In order to support the cause, I organized two bottle drives held in December and January. The bottle drive involved the entire Stratford Hall school community bringing in recyclables from home. Altogether, I raised $700 for the wall.

The learning outcomes taken away from this initiative include planning and initiating activities, working collaboratively with others, showing perseverance and commitment in my activities, engage in issues of global importance and considering ethical implications of my actions. First of all, I planned the bottle drive myself. I also had many other volunteers, especially the Roots and Shoots Club, helping sort bottles for collection I showed perseverance and commitment in my activities by waking up early every morning and staying late after school to sort recyclables. I engaged in issues of global importance by directly the funds to a school on the opposite side of the planet. I also considered the ethical implications of my actions by being able to contribute to providing a healthy learning environment for these students.

What I hoped to accomplish before I did the bottle drive was to raise about $1000. I was unable to attain that goal; however, when I raised $700, I realized that it was quite an accomplishment. Considering that each can was worth five cents, it was quite hard to believe that they accumulated to a total of that much. I then recognized that our school community is so supportive.

Some difficulties I encountered with this initiative was my initial doubts of anyone supporting my bottle drive. That was overcome by the recyclables flooding in each morning giving me more hope and confidence in what I planned.

I interacted with numerous other individuals, including teachers and students. We were able to function as a team and the Roots and Shoots Club began to know each other more.

Some values I developed from this initiative is moral satisfaction. I know that I contributed towards making a difference in another part of the world. I helped provide a safe learning environment for the students at Kipevu. As well, I am also satisfied because I was also promoting recycling which falls under the realm of my prefect position. I also developed a more optimistic attitude towards everything I currently do because my doubts were overcome with the number of recyclables that came in those two weeks.

What I would do differently next time would be to set up a system where the sorting could be more efficient and have more volunteers helping me after school. I was the only student who stayed after school on Friday for the collection day.

I can apply what I learned from this activity by being more optimistic in engaging and planning more activities.