For the City Times

STEVENS POINT –  Boston School Forest has been selected as a 2018 Cellcom Green Gift recipient. The organization received a $500 Green Gift from Cellcom to support composting efforts.

Boston School Forest has a recycling program as well as a composting program that is implemented every school day. The Green Gift will allow the school forest to purchase new raised and secure compost bins allowing students to help take out food scraps and tumble the bins to make the compost decompose faster.

“After lunches, we model how to recycle and compost. Most kids don’t see the inside of recycling centers or active compost piles, so often these are abstract concepts and hard to follow through with at home,” said Erin Cherkauer, naturalist educator at Boston School Forest.

“We hope that if the students can see the composting from start to finish and are involved in the process, it will make more of an impact on them so they can take what they learned back home and establish these good habits with their families.”

Boston School Forest was among 29 green organizations that received a share of the $40,000 in Green Gifts from Cellcom this year. The Green Gifts program launched in 2010 and uses funds generated from Cellcom’s cell phone recycling program to fund green nonprofit initiatives.

Customers and community members can bring in their old or unwanted phones to be reused and recycled. Cellcom sends the phones to recyclers who in return send money to Cellcom for the materials that were saved from the phones. Cellcom’s Green Gift program completes the green cycle that starts with consumers being environmentally-conscious and donating their devices.

“Green Gifts gives Cellcom the chance to partner with our customers to invest in our communities,” said Cindy Durand, director of public affairs at Cellcom. “By simply recycling old devices, customers are helping Cellcom contribute to programs and projects that support environmental stewardship and have a positive impact on our natural world.”

Visit Cellcom’s website for the full list of award recipients. Cellcom is proud to support organizations of all sizes, whose work is impacting the community and building a greener tomorrow. The company’s recycling program has generated $346,975 for local charities over the past 15 years.