Reusable Water Bottles Campaign Earns Lake Riviera Green Team 2nd In NJ Climate Contest

BRICK, NJ — Members of the Green Team at Lake Riviera Middle School saw that the school's recycling bins were frequently full of plastic water bottles. So they decided to do something about it.

The group created a video for their classmates and schoolmates, urging them to give up their single-use bottles for reusable ones by showing the effects the single-use bottles have on the environment. Their efforts have led to most of the school switching to reusable bottles, an impact that anyone would consider work well done.

Their efforts have been noticed far beyond the walls of their school in Brick, however: the Lake Riviera Green Team was awarded second place among middle schools in the NJ Student Climate Challenge. The contest encourages public school middle and high school students to identify and complete a school or community project to address a cause or impact of climate change and create a short digital story video to share what they have accomplished.

The team and the other teams that won were honored at a ceremony hosted by New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy.

The second-place finish earned a $1,000 school grant, said Pamela Evans, who is co-adviser to the Green Team.

"At the end of the day, almost all classes had their recycle bins full of water bottles," Evans said. "We wanted to reduce or eliminate single-use plastic water bottles."

The team's video was made by students, with two students writing the script after researching the impact of the single-use bottles on the environment, Evans said. Those students also wrote the script for the video, and six students acted it out, she said.

In addition to the fact that most of the school's students switched to reusable water bottles, the Green Team is working on a Lake Riviera reusable water bottle that will be available to students next year, Evans said.

Evans and Dawn Byrne are the co-advisers of the Lake Riviera Green Team. The video was created by 8th graders Frankie Civitano and Krupa Patel, who were its writers and directors. The actors were 7th graders Noah Danielson and Kyle Danielson, and 6th graders Shealyn Mooney, Rory Bray, Zain Voegborlo, and Madeline Drobny.

"It is an honor to join these bright young minds tonight as we celebrate their hard work on the NJ Student Climate Challenge action projects," Tammy Murphy said at the June 8 awards program. She is president of the Drumthwacket Foundation.

"New Jersey is the first state in the nation to incorporate climate change education across its K-12 learning standards, giving every student the opportunity to study and understand the climate crisis by equipping them with the critical knowledge and skills to combat climate change," Murphy said. "Let these projects show that our state, and the world, are in good hands with the generations of climate leaders who will come from New Jersey."

"The best of the best across New Jersey are on display and it validates the bright future of the next generation. The students being awarded will continue to shape our efforts to fight the climate crisis," said Melissa Lavinson, a senior vice president at Exelon Corporation.

"The students being recognized not only demonstrated their deep-rooted knowledge, but also showed their passion and determination to combat climate change through their innovative ideas and approaches," said Doug Mokoid, region president for Atlantic City Electric. "Now more than ever, we need the next generation to step up while climate change continues to impact our communities."

The NJ Student Climate Challenge is funded by Atlantic City Electric and its parent company, Exelon, along with support from the Drumthwacket Foundation, and Sustainable Jersey.