A TEAM EFFORT — Students and staff at Brooke Middle School, including its cafeteria workers, teamed with Mon Power, a FirstEnergy company, to collect more than 1,000 pounds of recyclable plastic and have received a bench made with recyclable plastic by NexTrex Recycling. Seen with the bench are, from left, seated, Kameron Miller-Hickey of FirstEnergy and Principal Jennifer Sisinni and standing: Edenn Nickoles, Susan Cunningham, Dana Delaney, Paula Mahan, Carolyn Wilson and Dana Johnson and Jessica Shaffer of FirstEnergy. -- Warren Scott

WELLSBURG — With the help of many, students at Brooke Middle School worked to collect hundreds of pounds of recyclable plastic and got to see how such material can be put to new use.

Dana Johnson, a math teacher at the school, said with support from the Generations Green Team at Mon Power, a FirstEnergy company, and many others, within 12 months, the school collected more than 1,000 pounds of recyclable plastic found in such stretchy items as bread and grocery bags and plastic wrapped around pallets found in many grocery stores.

“We started collecting plastic on Oct. 11 and finished collecting it on May 30, totaling 1,006.9 pounds,” said Johnson.

She said as a result of their efforts, the school has received a bench made from recycled plastic by NexTrex, a Winchester, Pa., company that has promoted such efforts at many schools through its NexTrex Challenge.

Johnson said she learned of the contest through Kameron Miller-Hickey, a 2013 Brooke High School alumna who now works as a chemical engineer for Mon Power, a FirstEnergy company.

Miller-Hickey is part of the company’s Generations Green Team, which has teamed with schools, parks and other organizations to promote good environmental practices through the contest and other activities, including the planting of pollinator gardens.

Helping to unveil the bench at the middle school’s front entrance was Jessica Shaffer, advanced scientist and leader of the local Generations Green Team.

Shaffer said benches have been provided to East Fairmont Senior High School and Bartlett House, a charity serving the homeless in Morgantown.

From Brooke Middle School, she was heading next to Weirton to plant a pollinator garden on company property there.

Shaffer said FirstEnergy has supplied materials to plant such gardens at Fairmont Senior High School, a library in West Newton, Pa., and other locations.

Johnson said that could be the school’s next project.

She said in addition to FirstEnergy, many came together for the recycling effort, with the school’s cafeteria staff gathering all of the recyclable plastic they encountered in their daily routine, the Wellsburg Kroger store donating many tons of packaging from its pallets and Eagle Manufacturing supplying containers for the large volume of plastic brought to the school by students and their parents.

“It was really a team effort across the board, which is nice,” said Shaffer.

Miller-Hickey’s parents, Kim and Joe Miller, assisted by transporting the completed collection to Morgantown.

It’s not the first time Miller-Hickey has been involved in a recycling project that benefited a school.

She recalled that for her senior project, she collected pop cans with classmate and future husband, Brice Hickey, to raise money for a granite bench placed in front of the high school.

“It’s nice to give back to a community I grew up in,” she said.