MANSFIELD — Five students at Mansfield Senior High School can be seen walking around the hallways collecting paper from classrooms and dumping it into large brown bins on a typical Thursday.
Three years ago, Connie Zhu and and her multiple disabilities program took over the weekly responsibilities from the KEY Club.
“We thought this would be a good project for our program because it teaches responsibility, job skills, those kinds of things.” Zhu said while her students wiped the large bins dry from the rain which had fallen the night before. “The kids really enjoy doing it. The kids look forward to doing this job or program every week.”
Garth Harris, a junior said in his first year, he has already seen more than one benefit of the program.
“It’s fun; I get to help teachers and students out,” Harris said. “I’ve been wanting to get into auto mechanics for past few years since I’ve been going here.
“This program has shown Mrs. Zhu I can handle responsibility. They are working on getting me in to auto mechanics next year.”
Zhu said one of the benefits of the program is her class receives money for the paper donated to the local recycling center. The money helps fund a variety of projects for the students including Christmas shopping trips, going out to eat, transportation to their annual bowling trip and their basketball free throw with the Shriners, and a “special needs prom.”
“It’s not a lot of money, but it’s still helps,” Zhu said.
Kayli Jacobs, a junior has been trying to be part of the recycling program since she found out about it, she said.
“I wanted to do it last year, but I couldn’t because there were too many people doing it already,” she said. “I like helping my teacher, and after high school, we are thinking about getting a job. This program helps us with that.
“Next year I’ll be a senior, and I want to do it again.”
