Nevada Middle School students take positive action to improve the environment

A team of eight students at Nevada Middle School have entered the second annual Lexus Eco Challenge, a national contest that encourages middle and high school students to develop and implement environmental programs that positively impact their communities.

The Lexus Eco Challenge created by Lexus, the luxury automaker, and Scholastic, the global children's publishing, education and media company, was designed to educate young people about the environment and to inspire them to create a better world. The students at Nevada Middle School have accepted the challenge by taking a stand and proving that a small group can bring about big changes. After carefully studying the local environment, the students have developed an Action Plan they feel will benefit their local community.

The students are planning a project to increase the recycling of paper, among other materials, in Nevada and Vernon County. Presentations will be given to local groups and classrooms to increase their awareness of the issue of recycling and encourage individuals to begin to recycle in their homes and businesses.

The community is invited to support the team's Action Plan by signing pledges to start recycling in their home and/or school.

Students at Nevada Middle School can sign pledge sheets located throughout the building and local community members can log onto the Internet to pledge to recycle.

You can e-mail your pledge to recycle to ppennington@

nevada.k12.mo.us.

Lexus and Scholastic will choose 16 winning teams nationwide. Each team will receive a total of $10,000 in grants and scholarships. All winning teams from this challenge and two other initial challenges will be invited to participate in the Final Challenge for a chance to win a grand prize of $50,000 in grants and scholarships.