Reduce, Reuse, Reimagine
May 13, 2019
In the early morning hours of April 28th, eight members from Staley Art Club met up to begin work on a new initiative project to make the campus cleaner.
The project was headed by art teacher Manabu Takahashi, who also runs the art club that met every Thursday.
He said he was inspired to do the project while driving down Shoal Creek Parkway one day.
“I saw just a bunch of trash on the side of the road, and I just thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could just pick it up?’” said Takahashi.
The students met at the school and split off into groups to begin phase one of the project, picking up the trash around campus. That led to phase two, disinfect and store useable items. Then in phase three, they planned to make a sculpture out of the remaining trash.
“I think it’s really cool that so many people care about the environment and are willing to help us make something really pretty,” said freshman Camilla Rivera, one of the students that was present at the clean-up.
The students who participated in the trash pick-up reached less than a quarter of the campus, yet they still managed to acquire eight full bags of garbage.
“The first step is just doing it,” said Takahashi. “Just getting up off your couch and just going out there and doing it. And I think we did that, but we still have a long way to go.”
Freshman Kaden Leath, who was a student at pick-up, hoped that the project inspired students to not just throw their trash out. “Find a new and creative purpose for the discarded materials,” said Leath.
Leath was also looking forward to the sculpture aspect of the project.
“It gives the members of art club interesting challenge to see what we can make out of the materials,” said Leath.
Takahashi wanted all students to just be aware of what they toss out.
“It may disappear out of your life, but it doesn’t disappear entirely from our world,” said Takahashi.