SPMS Girl Scouts Recycle T-Shirts Into Tote Bags

Gently used (or new) T-shirts now have a new purpose thanks to the ingenuity of Girl Scout Troop 4814 of   The troop has taken on their Silver Award project by getting creative with recycling T-shirts into unique tote bags to shop with or to carry as a purse - or to tote library books, school books, clothing and of course, a handy bag to bring to the grocery store.

This "Take Action Project" involves collecting donated T-shirts from the SPMS community and recycling them by converting the shirts into tote bags to be used in lieu of plastic.

Donation boxes decorated by the troop are placed throughout the school and will be collecting T-shirts until the last day before spring break April 15. The troop of 13 SPMS seventh-graders are led by Chris Ravekes, Caroline Leverty and Debbie Compere. "I was a little skeptical of the project at first but they [the scouts] decided this is what they wanted to do," said Ravekes. "We are a very community-oriented troop."

The girls were busy on Friday carefully cutting the T-shirt sleeves off and trimming around the collar, followed by cutting of the ends into strips and tying them into knots for a stylish "fringe" at the bottom.

The important aspect to this silver award project is the community outreach; making these tote bags is helping SPMS to achieve green certification. Therefore, the troop will be exhibiting at the upcoming Greater at SPMS  from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on April 30 where they will be handing the totes out free to attendees.

The scouts made posters to place throughout the school to promote the bags and attract T-shirt donations, wrote  newsletter articles and there's also a video to help bring the message to the students and staff at the school that "an alternative exists to the environmentally unfriendly plastic bags."

The response by the teachers, many of whom have donated stacks of T-shirts and by the students, has been promising for the girls who hope to reach their goal of bringing 135 recycled tote bags to the Expo. To date, they've made about 75 plus.

The Silver Award is the highest achievement award at Girl Scout Cadette can earn by demonstrating they are leaders who are organized, determined and dedicated to improving their community.

Members of Troop 4814:

Taylor Cole, Allie Compere, Maddie Howard, Kate Grabowski, Kaitlin Krasic, Erin Kushner, Brianna Leverty, Iris Leverty, Emi McGeady, Hailey O'Mara, Lauren Ravekes, Meera Srinivasan and Surya Srinivasan.