Consolidated Communications rewards local schools for recycling
Four local schools gather books, earn money from Consolidated Communications
MATTOON – Area students recently gathered 30,000 phone books for recycling, and as a reward they earned $2,500 for their schools from Consolidated Communications.
The books were collected by students at St. Anthony Grade School, Sacred Heart School, Effingham Junior High School and Sigel St. Michael. During the month-long program, students were encouraged to gather old phone books from family members and friends and to bring them into each school following the delivery of the 2010-2011 Phone Book from Consolidated in September.
St. Anthony Grade School earned top honors and a check for $1,000 from Consolidated Communications by gathering an average of 62 books per student, for a total of 21,138 books. That amount is more than the combined total number of books gathered by all the schools in last year’s program.
Sacred Heart School students gathered the second highest tally with 27.2 books per student, for a total of 4,510 books, and earned a $750 check from Consolidated. Students at Sigel St. Michael gathered about 22 books per student, for a total of 2,150 books, earned a check for $500. Effingham Junior High School students gathered about 3.5 books per student and turned in 2,201 books and received a check for $250. In all, the schools gathered 30,000 books.
“Consolidated Communications is proud of the work these students did to gather old telephone books,” said Brad Barker, manager, Consolidated Directories. “This program teaches children about the benefits of recycling and provides the schools with funding for other programs and opportunities for the students. We are especially pleased with the work by St. Anthony students to gather more than 21,000 directories for recycling.”
Barker said in addition to recycling old books, the company’s directories are printed using environmentally safe inks and dyes and no trees are cut down to make paper for directories.
Barker added that through this program, the books were picked up at the schools and housed by Sanitation Service Inc., of Effingham before being recycled. “This program is truly a great community project. Brian Hayes of Sanitation Service donates his company’s time to pick up the books and arranges for recycling each year with Howard’s Disposal. Howard’s picks up the books from Sanitation Service in empty trucks after dumping loads at the landfill. We couldn’t do this program without their support, and we sincerely appreciate it,” Barker said.
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