Reduce, reuse, recycle…as members of the Santa Cruz Small Schools JSA chapter, these are definitely principles we believe in.  At the Sacramento Winter Congress Convention we were delighted to find a way to put these principles into action. After the closing ceremony, our chapter collected the convention badges from students as they filed out of the debate hall; it was wonderful to get to see our fellow “Senators” and “Representatives” as they left the convention, and  
exciting to know that the badges would reused during Spring State. 

 
After we had finished, when the hall was empty of students, we were struck by the amount of plastic cups, soda cans, and campaign literature strewn throughout the room.  With the help of our advisor Jasmin Gerer and the support of  JSA staff Dana Ron and Jeff Harris, we collected and sorted the litter.  Many of the campaign flyers we were able to salvage and give back to the candidates for redistribution, while the majority of the “trash” we collected was actually recyclable.

Unfortunately, since our hotel threw away both paper and plastic, we ultimately had to pile the boxes of recycling we had collected, along with our many suitcases, into our school van to bring back to Santa Cruz.  Nonetheless it was satisfying to know that, though there were over 800 students who had attended the convention, there would not be 800 badges needlessly thrown away, and a few more boxes worth of recycling wouldn’t see a landfill.  Though our contribution was small, we hope to continue the practice at future JSA events, and urge other students to do so as well.  Our actions represent how JSA can provide the perfect vessel through which students can not only learn and debate, but also support what we believe through action and example.

  ~Sophia Forde, Santa Cruz Small Schools Alternative Family Education