Since last fall, members of our Recycling Team have been mentoring and supporting a team of high school students in Dubois County to complete an Earth Day project.

Student volunteers from three high schools participated.

The schools are encouraging students to bring in Plastic Bottles and Aluminum Cans for recycling. Employee from our Worldwide Headquarters visited the schools to pick up the items and transfer them to our recycling vendor.

The Dubois County Free Press published the below story about Kimball Electronics World Headquarters High School Student Environmental Committee efforts, which began last fall and culminated with an Earth Day activity this month.

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A team of students from Jasper, Southridge and Forest Park high schools have made it a mission to highlight recycling as part of an Earth Day project last week and continuing through this week.

Organized in conjunction with Kimball Electronics, the High School Environmental Committee is made up of seven students: Ruth Sherer, Penelope Roy and Kelly Evans from Southridge; Macey Stiles and Giselle Bez from Jasper; and sisters, Avari and Addison Schneider from Forest Park.

According to Scott Saalman, communications director at Kimball Electronics, the goal was to create a committee of local students to take on an Earth Day project. They created a list of ideas and decided to conduct an aluminum can and plastic bottle recycling drive at their respective schools.

The committees created an intraschool competition with a $50 award for the student that brought in the most items. Then, a drawing will be held to determine the overall winning school, with the prize being a $500 donation made to the ocean conservation organization Blue Ring, Inc. on that school's behalf.

Forest Park held their recycling drive last week, and Jasper ran their recycling efforts this week, while Southridge split its efforts by holding a drive for plastic bottles last week and aluminum cans this week.

Ruth Sherer got involved because she sees recycling as one way to mitigate humanity's impact on the environment. She plans on pursuing a career in international affairs with the goal of working with nations to reduce environmental issues.

"I am taking part in this project because the environmental issues that are affecting our daily lives will only be getting worse, and my generation is going to have to be the one to fix it," she explained by email. "It's never too late to begin work on a problem that will take a long time to solve, even if the work that we do only makes a small impact."

She added that reducing the consumption of materials that pollute the environment is one of the most important things we can do, but that until that happens, recycling is a step in the right direction.

"Overall, the situation with the environment is a big feat, but don't let that discourage you from doing what you can," Sherer said. "And it's not just our fault. The biggest polluters are factories and companies."

She said it was good to see a company like Kimball Electronics not only work with students on this project but also make efforts towards sustainability and reduction in environmental impact.

At Forest Park, Avari Schneider, a junior, was excited by the participation she was seeing from the underclassmen at the school. "I've seen trash bags full of items brought in by sophomores and freshmen," she said.

Additionally, the team there has been encouraging students to be sure to recycle items — soft drinks or sports drinks — they buy during the school day. "So, even students like that who wouldn't normally participate in something like this are able to participate with an item or two during the school day," Schneider said.

She was really happy with the turnout though. "I have seen a lot of people bring in like, even if it's not a huge trash bag, but like small bags of things that they've had at their house," Schneider said.

All the items collected will be picked up by Kimball Electronics and delivered to the local recycling centers.

The winning school will be announced in the future. According to Saalman, the chosen school could also receive a guest appearance from the founder of Blue Ring, Inc., Alex Rose, for a special presentation.