Ariella Ayenesazan, a 9-year-old fourth grader at Harbor Hill Elementary School, has persuaded the Roslyn School District to eliminate Styrofoam trays not once, but twice.
Briana Dusling, a 16-year-old junior at Roslyn High School, persuaded the Roslyn School District to join the town’s School Recycling Partnership Program.
For their efforts, the two Roslyn students were the featured speakers at the kickoff ceremony for Town of North Hempstead’s School Recycling Partnership Program in the Roslyn School District on Oct. 27 at Roslyn High School at the invitation of Board of Education President Meryl Waxman Ben-Levy, Superintendent Gerard Dempsey, and Roslyn High School principal Scott Andrews.
Surrounded by school and Town of North Hempstead officials — including North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth, Town Councilman Peter Zuckerman, Town Clerk Wayne Wink, and Receiver of Taxes Charles Berman — the two students recounted their campaigns to improve the environment.
Ayenesazan said her efforts began in 2013, when she was in second grade, and she created a “mini-petition” during indoor recess which urged the school to make the switch from Styrofoam lunch trays to cardboard lunch trays.
Ayenesazan said most of her classmates signed the petition.
With some help from her mother Celia, Ayenesazan got in contact with former Roslyn School District food service manager Elizabeth McLoughlin and was able to get the Styrofoam trays replaced with cardboard trays in the spring of 2014.
But, Ayenesazan said earlier this school year, she saw the Styrofoam lunch trays back at the school.
“I was shocked they were using Styrofoam trays again” she said.
Ayenesazan said she refused to use the Styrofoam trays, and ate her lunch off napkins instead.
At the Oct. 22 meeting of the Roslyn Board of Education, Ayenesazan said, she spoke to members of the board about the return of the Styrofoam trays.
Ayenesazan said board members told her the Styrofoam trays returned during the transition between McLoughlin and the new food service manager Dawn Piteo, who took over the position on Oct. 26.
Three days after speaking at the meeting, Ayenesazan said the school brought back the cardboard trays.
“I felt really good that I got the [cardboard] trays [back],” she said.
On Nov. 3, Dempsey sent Ayenesazan a three-paragraph letter that said “it was a mistake that [the Styrofoam trays were] being used again.
“The trays have been removed and by the end of the week all Styrofoam will be eliminated,” Dempsey said in the letter.
Dempsey also thanked Ayenesazan in the letter, saying her concern for the environment was very commendable.”
Dusling said she came up with the idea to make the Roslyn School District a part of the town’s School Recycling Partnership Program when she was in eighth grade.
At the end of her freshman year, Dusling said she got in contact with former superintendent Dan Brenner about her idea.
According to a press release from the town, “As part of the program, the town supplies every single classroom and office in each participating district with recycling bins,”
Dusling said she wanted to get the recycling bins so she could earn her Girl Scout Gold Award.
The award “represents the highest achievement in Girl Scouting,” and challenges girls to “change the world,” the Girl Scouts web site said.
Dusling said she has been a Girl Scout since she was five years old.
The process to get the recycling bins took two years, Dusling said.
Part of this process was contacting Erin Reilley, the town’s Chief Sustainability Officer.
Dusling said she has been in contact with Reilley for about a year, working to get the recycling bins.
“[Dusling] is very diligent,” Reilley said. “She always checks back in. She’s done a great job. I’m very impressed.”
Reilley said she met with Dusling, town Solid Waste Commissioner Igor Sikiric, town Sustainability Officer Bill Karavasilis and representatives from the Roslyn School District on Jan. 21 to discuss the district joining the town’s recycling program.
The Roslyn School District had been invited twice before to join the recycling program, Reilley said, but officils from the district never expressed any interest in joining the program until Dusling got involved.
“[Dusling] lobbied [the district and] she educated [the district],” Reilley said. “She did a great job.”
When Dusling saw the hundreds of recycling bins stacked on top of one another at the ceremony, she said it was “really surreal.”
“I had been working on this for such a long time,” Dusling said. “I’m very happy the school got the recycling bins. It was a long process.”
Dusling said the recycling bins are currently located all throughout Roslyn High School. She hopes they will be put into all five Roslyn schools by the end of the school year so that students can get used to them before the summer.
Roslyn Middle School is next line for the recycling bins, Dusling said, but no official date has been set.
Dusling said other students have take notice of the recycling bins at Roslyn High School.
“People have come to [me] and told [me the recycling bins] are really cool,” she said. “I know it’s not over, but I know people are using [them] and [liking] them.”
Both students said they both enjoyed their moment in the spotlight.
“I felt really good that I’m actually talking to these people,” Ayenesazan said.
