Dennis Yarmouth High School Students Go Greener!

After the recent publication of an article featuring our very own composting program at Barnstable High School, a student from Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School’s Cape Youth Force class reached out to me through my contact form on my website. Toriana Richards and Sydney Burke recently won a $403.00 grant to turn their proposal into a viable program. I am more familiar with anaerobic digesters than traditional composting methods, so I reached out to Association to Preserve Cape Cod (APCC) for some additional information. Michael McCluskey from Cape Save met me at DY High to talk to the class about his personal compost experiences on a residential scale. After his informative talk, students asked questions about the capacity and speed at which compost bins would be able to decompose their food waste, as well as, the amount of labor and care this effort would require. Mr. McCluskey offered to donate a set of his handmade compost bins, constructed from recycled wooden pallets to DY. His generous donation and his gift of knowledge will help Tori and Sydney initiate their composting program within their school. Commercial scale machines are ideal for such a volume of food waste, but this first step will be a great start, reducing their output and help fulfill the grant requirements. Next, the class will be collecting data so they are able to understand how many pounds of food waste are being disposed of on a daily basis in their school. This will help them determine if considering a commercial size anaerobic digester is a better fit for their school, and if so, they will scavenge the interwebs for grants while working and coordinating with local establishments and other schools to fund the machine. Their teacher at the Cape Youth Force class came up with an idea for the environmental club to paint ornaments like wreaths and Santa inside oyster shells. Not only are they recycling Cape Cod materials but they are raising money in an innovative and creative way!As these students begin the challenging yet rewarding journey to finalizing their own compost program, they will face setbacks and will have to educate the student body for it to be successful. I will be assisting in any way I possibly can because any student willing to embark on a quest as ambitious as this deserve any and all support they can get. Good luck to our fellow green students as they provoke change at DY High!

Look at these ornaments created from reused oyster shells from restaurants! The DY Environmental Club is selling these to raise money for their future green projects and ideas. This creative and ecological craft is helping pave their way to a more sustainable aware school. Keep it up Dolphins!

Picture of the Cape Youth Force class repping their Mission Cape Cod stickers.