It’s perhaps the best kind of environmental partnership – use one good project to fund another. Eleven years ago, Vickie Arnold began taking her fifth and sixth grade science students in Hooker beyond the classroom to the hands-on excitement of recycling aluminum cans and then planting trees with the cash proceeds.

Vicki Arnold with a group of FFA student tree planters

This year alone, the students turned a quarter-ton of cans collected from homes, bar ditches and workplaces into enough money to purchase and plant six trees. While most of the trees beautify the school grounds, Mrs. Arnold’s students also have added trees in many other locations, most notably in Hooker’s Bird Sanctuary Memorial Park.

One judge requested that Mrs. Arnold be cloned, with copies sent for each county in his state. “What a great teacher,” he crowed. “I like the way recycling also pays benefits for beautification.”

With literally growing reminders of their impact on the planet, the students know that VICKIE ARNOLD’S DEEP-ROOTED LESSONS ARE GOOD NEWS FOR OKLAHOMA’S ENVIRONMENT!