Bagging a 30-point buck is near impossible. Putting a half dozen recyclables in a sack, turns out, was easy for more than 100 local residents who took part in Keep Alliance Beautiful’s scavenger hunt.
KAB Education Coordinator Kari Bargen organized and conducted the 2020 contest. This was the fifth annual scavenger hunt with schools in Alliance and Hemingford as well as the public participating. Winners were drawn at random from the 104 entries returned. Those selected include:
$25 winners — Lucy Cullan-Hemingford Public Schools, Deliah Hickox-Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran School, Penn Vergil-Saint Agnes Academy, Alexander Brungard-Emerson Elementary, and Rose Hardy-Community.
Recycling Toy Truck winners — Liam Hansen-IELS preschool, and Zeke Dean-SAA preschool.
Water Bottle winners — Rhonda Cox-Community, Wren Weare-Grandview Elementary, Quinn Robertson-SAA, Gabriel Jackson-IELS, Gabriel Hernandez-Emerson, and Ty Horstman-Hemingford.
KAB distributed flyers detailing the opportunity to turn in an empty water bottle, toilet paper or paper towel center, used envelope, empty aluminum can, empty tin can and empty cereal box for prizes to Box Butte County Schools. Students from the buildings mentioned above received the contest sheets as well as Alliance middle and high schools.
Bargen worked to make this version a bit more streamlined.
“This year I made a few changes! Instead of 11 items I did six. I just thought the easier and more concise the better,” she explained. “ I made a checklist turn in sheet to make it more fun and give them a visual of what they needed to find. We also were able to apply for a grant from the Mission Store for prizes, so we didn’t request the $1 with each entry like we have in the past. This way it was more accessible to all families and no one had to worry about having a certain amount of money to participate. We appreciate the support of the Mission Store greatly! Also, instead of one $100 for one winner, I split up the prizes so we could draw from each school and have more winners!”
When they were notified, “All of our winners were very excited!”
The number of entries was about average, a little over 10 percent based on flyers handed out, for what we have got in past years, Bargen noted. “Of course we would love to see more, but we know families are busy and just appreciate all the ones that we received!”
“We hope by doing this activity that the participants will see that recycling isn’t as hard as some may think and that recyclable items are all around us,” she continued. “We use many of the items on the scavenger hunt list daily! Making kids aware of the impact they can have on the world around them is an invaluable lesson.”
Looking back on the past few weeks, Bargen said, “I loved how excited the kids were about showing me their entries and their excitement for recycling!”
I hope everyone who took part this fall will try again next year. Oh, and convince a few friends to go “hunting” with you too.