The Sailing club took on the NexTrex Plastic Film Recycling Challenge for the first time in the school’s history. To take part in the challenge, students can donate clean plastic film products such as grocery bags, newspaper sleeves, and plastic wrap to any of the boxes located outside the library, faculty mail room, or math office. 

Students have until the end of the school year to participate in this challenge. As a reward the winning school will get a Trex bench, a type of bench made of eco-friendly materials.

Math teacher and sailing club sponsor Courtney Clark decided to take on the recycling challenge due to her ever increasing concern for the environment.

“We each have a duty to leave our community and our world a better place than we found it,” Clark said.

Sailing club member senior Austin Koontz has been a driving force in raising awareness for the challenge as well and was on hand this week when Chris Ludford from Virginia Beach Fire Department dropped off a truckload of plastic for recycling purposes. The Fire Department Public Information officer Art Kohn also came out to take photos and conduct interviews.

“I want to continue to raise awareness about pollution in the ocean and this project is the first step to do something great for this school,” Koontz said.