McNeill Elementary student collects bottle caps for an awesome project

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – At McNeill Elementary, the idea of one 5th grade student to collect bottle caps turned into something amazing for her school in the form of a bench in the courtyard.

“This came straight from Eleni Samios, one of our amazing 5th grade leaders… came to me early September and said ‘Miss Mills, I’ve got an idea… for a project, and would you trust me, to initiate this project and let the whole school be a part of it?” McNeill Principal Emily Mills says.

However, there were plenty of bottle caps left over, so Eleni plans to use the rest of them for another purpose.

“The raised garden beds are going to be used to plant flowers and vegetables. I think that those will… add something beautiful to our environment. I like that they’re made out of recycled plastic, so it adds a little bit more to the whole charm of it,” Samios says.

Her principal is excited to see the school come together around this incredible program created by just one student.

“We… in the last couple weeks said ‘No, thank you. We don’t need any more bottle caps.’ It was such a big deal, if a student saw somebody accidentally throw a bottle cap away, they were saying ‘Don’t throw that away…’ and it was really neat to see 460 kids really come together for the same cause because of one 5th grader’s mission,” Mills says.

Samios hopes she has inspired other kids in her school to do something similar for something they are passionate about.

“I feel like a lot of kids don’t think that they can do something this big, and I feel like I just inspired them to try to do something just as great. I really… hope that all these benches and raised garden beds inspire other kids to take action,” she says.

She also says a book she read was her inspiration to recycle.