Floral students turn recycling into aid for African orphanage

All those bottles and cans can add up.

Students in the Floral Program offered by the Riverside County Office of Education ROP/CTE program at Valley View High School in Moreno Valley turned about 60,000 of them into school supplies, clean water, and even a generator for an orphanage school in Uganda.

“We call it an environmental cause with a humanitarian heart,” said Lorie Suntree, an instructor in the Floral Design program for about 350 students at Valley View. “It has really taken off here.”

She helped found the ECO Club (Environmental Conservation Organization), which has grown from eight members to more than 100. They gather plastic bottles and aluminum cans around the campus and recycle them at a recycling station next to the high school.

“We estimate that the vending machines and lunch lines produce about 100,000 bottles and cans a year,” she said. The club is recycling a majority of them. “It’s not always a nice task; people throw a lot of things in the recycling canisters besides bottles and cans.”

What has motivated students is seeing what they can provide to students half a world away in Bethel Junior High in Uganda. They spent $1,000 on a generator, $700 for backpacks and school supplies, and $2,300 for a clean water well.

They also raised $1,000 for medications for a medical clinic near the orphanage.