For the past few months, five students at Newberry High School have been working to get the attention of their peers in an effort to protect the environment. Now their work is getting some national attention as well.

The team is one of just sixteen in the nation to be recognized in the Lexus Environmental Challenge for land-related projects, a competition sponsored by Toyota. Seniors Dakota Herrera, Ashley Hughes, Anna Thrasher, Crystal Hall and Joyce Heckerman each won a $500 scholarship and teacher Cynthia Holland will receive a $500 grant for a project the girls developed to promote the recycling of plastic bottles at their school. They are also now eligible to participate in the organization’s grand-prize challenge in January.

“I’m really excited that we made it this far,” said Thrasher. “Even if we don’t win, we still did something good for the environment.”

The students’ project came about when they realized that at least 180 plastic bottles were being thrown away on campus each day, which meant they ultimately ended up in a landfill. The girls built plastic bottle recycling bins and set them up in key areas on campus. They then encouraged their fellow students to use the bins through videos, posters and word-of-mouth. They’re now collecting several hundred bottles a week.

Holland says the message is getting through to the larger student population because it’s coming from their fellow students.

“I can stand up there and preach all day long, but when they see their peers go out and doing something, it gives them a sense of empowerment,” she said.

“It makes me very happy,” said Hughes. “People are paying attention and they’re definitely recycling more.”

While they continue with their recycling project, the girls are tackling additional work. The Lexus Environmental Challenge is also offering prizes for projects focusing on air and water quality and climate. The students are creating public service announcements on water conservation that will air on the Newberry cable channel and a website that will be linked from the city’s website. They also plan to develop and submit other projects in the next couple of months.

All of the girls have busy academic, work and extracurricular schedules, which means they must find time after school, during lunch or on weekends to work on their projects. But Holland says they’ve been very committed.

“They are really working for it,” she said. “They came together and decided that this is what they wanted to do, that they wanted to reach a high level of achievement.”

The students also say they want the benefits of what they’ve accomplished to continue even after they leave Newberry High School.

“I want to come back and make sure they’re still doing the recycling and keeping up with all the things we’ve done,” said Herrera. “And in my own personal life, I want to make sure that I’m still recycling and getting other people to recycle.”

“I’m sure everything we’ve learned will follow us through college and even work,” said Hall. “We can keep it all going as we move on.”

Working on the projects has helped the girls sharpen their creative, academic, technology, even teamwork skills. But there are other, perhaps more significant lessons they’ve learned through their work.

“It’s not that hard to make a difference,” said Heckerman. “It only takes a small step in something you’re interested in, that you think is important not just to your community, but to the world.”

“They see that one person’s activism can make a difference, whether it’s an environmental issue or something else,” said Holland. “That’s a big lesson they can carry forward for the rest of their lives.”

For more information, call Newberry High at 472-1101.

Story provided by School Board of Alachua County.