Heritage Days is here then Box Butte County Fair in Hemingford with wheat harvest in between. When pondering where “it” goes, summer and time in general always make the list.
Time, our very own unique perspective on how it passes, seems to start early with some adults able to access memories from preschool and before. Instead of thinking about a torn butterfly from kindergarten, my recent thoughts have touched on how people choose to spend time between the first breath and their last.
Recycling, for instance, is among dozens of daily activities in homes and businesses. Budget how long the commitment will take and the practice becomes routine. Volunteering to help our crew at the Keep Alliance Beautiful Recycling Center is on another level. Granted, some people come by for a number of days as part of court-ordered community service. Volunteers are not much different than securing dedicated employees – some arrive with a positive attitude and work ethic, others not so much. I have worked alongside a few retired volunteers during the past four years, yet the balance has been younger than I.
Our latest community member to donate time marked her first day July 7. Katelyn Heisler,
who will be a junior at Alliance High School this fall, is parlaying the experience into meeting a requirement for membership in the National Honor Society.
“They give you a letter, tells you the GPA (grade point average) requirement (which I had met) to apply and gives you a list of possible places,” she explained. Bumping into Kathy Worley, KAB’s executive director, at Safeway, Katelyn and her mom asked about choosing the recycling center for service hours. Katelyn said she knew Kathy from working at Redman’s. Beyond that connection, “I think recycling is a big deal,” Katelyn said.
She really only considered serving at KAB. “The other places were kind of boring and I really didn’t know how to contact them,” she said. The appeal of joining the National Honor Society itself is also a matter of time – looking to the future. “I know it looks great on college applications,” Katelyn said. She would really like to leave Alliance after graduating from AHS. Scholarships would expand options to attend “a good college” that her family may not otherwise be able to afford.
Katelyn moved from Alabama to Alliance in 2017 at age 10 where she had lived her whole life by the bay along the Gulf of Mexico. Litter in her hometown and Alliance have been about on par though spring break years ago proved an exception. “There was beer bottles and trash all over Orange Beach and they had to close it for a couple days. . . . You see trash all over no matter where you go . . .,” she said.
Vacations, personnel changes and health issues among recycling center staff make another set of hands a valuable asset. “I knew I’d work a lot and do what I was told to do,” Katelyn said simply. She has already gone on runs to pick up recyclables and continues to learn what goes where and how to get it there. Also,Heritage Days offers the opportunity for downtown trash patrol. “What’s challenging is (helping to) pick up those white things (aluminum/plastic totes) when they have stuff in them. I don’t like the (baling) wires because I can’t put them in fully and somebody has to help me.”
In addition to a National Honor Society number or narrative, time at KAB may be fodder for the school paper. Kately was a staff writer for the Spud during the 2022-23 school year. “I took a journalism class and had to think of things to write. A lot of times I turned to environmental stuff. I have a soft spot in my heart for animals and the ocean.”
Whether you read all about it later under her byline or not, Katelyn conveyed a positive assessment as concluded our interview by the balers. “I like working here, it’s fun, a lot of weird.”