Mildred Hall School has been recognized by NorthwesTel for their efforts in collecting 867 phone books to be recycled.
Back row, from the left, Dominik Mandeville, Matias Gannon, Koray Gannon, Kaylem Lafferty-Lermo, Lawson Liske-Nayally, Chace Mantla, Darin Catholique.
Front row, from the left, Taveon Liske-Nayally, Ry'den Kakfwi Lennie, Kurtis Kimisana, Brycen Apples, Holland Van Overliw, Kaize Roach-Ashoona, Celestia O'Brien,
Logan Neill-Sudlovenick.
Brett McGarry / NNSL photo
MHS students put themselves above other schools by collecting the highest ratio of books to students at a rate or 3.3 books per students.
This has won Mildred Hall an Emerald award from NorthwesTel and $750 towards environmental activities at the school.
Every year the schools the school puts out messages to parents that the recycling initiative will take place and the students collect the phone books from their homes, relatives and their parents places of work.
Ryan Nichols, vice principal at MHS, said the kids always get excited to participate in events like these.
"Every year the kids put in a lot of effort to find and recycle the phone books, even though they're getting harder to find these days," said Nichols.
"Both students and staff have a strong interest in things like recycling. We have recycling groups, class composting and things like gardening clubs at recess and after school. It continues to grow every year."
NorthwesTel has been holding this event every year since 2001 and have recycled over 200,000 directories and given over $300,000 for environmental causes.
"The students have really put in a fantastic effort," said Imran Khan, director at NorthwesTel.
"Getting 3.3 directories per student was really impressive considering the average is about 2."
Being the 40th anniversary for NorthwesTel this year, they are calculating the average directories-per-person rates from Yukon, northern BC and Northwest Territories and hosting a live concert in fall at the school with the most phone books per class.