Past President Mariko Higashi and her husband, Ravi Bugga, read aloud “Michael Recycle” to a third grade class at Princess Nahi‘ena‘ena Elementary School.

LAHAINA – On Wednesday, Nov. 7, five teams of two “Rotary Team Teachers” visited the third grade classes at Princess Nahi’ena’ena Elementary School. The purpose of their visit was to share the message of “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle” with the students.

The Rotary Club of Lahaina Sunset is known as the “Go for the Green” Rotary Club and operates the Third Saturday Recycling event each month at Lahaina Cannery Mall.

As a result of a club visioning activity, the concept of educating children about the message of recycling was raised.

The curriculum for the activity was written by Past President Joanne Laird and the date of the activity was coordinated by Third Grade Chair Lori Kaufman.

The Rotary Team Teachers began the 30-minute activity by reading aloud “Michael Recycle,” a fresh and funny children’s picture book that shares an important message about recycling and environmental awareness.

The children were then led through two in-class follow-up activities that reinforced the vocabulary and meaning of recycling.

Children enjoyed identifying objects that could be recycled and organizing a list of recycling terms in A-B-C order.

At the conclusion of the 30-minute activity, each child received a recycling-themed pencil and a globe eraser to remind them that it is up to all of us to protect our world environment.

The copy of the “Michael Recycle” book was left for the classroom library. The book also includes a number of activities that children can do to help them become “environmental superheroes”.

President-Elect Ryan Beenken said, “I think it is of great importance that we have an open dialogue with our keiki the importance of not only recycling, but of reducing our usage of single-use plastic, paper and other materials to take care of our ‘aina for many generations.”

This activity is one of the many community and youth service projects of the Rotary Club of Lahaina Sunset. For more information, call President Heidi Dollinger at 359-4245.