The Gloucester Lions Club got a big boost from county children during November in its effort to collect 500 pounds of plastic shopping bags.
Working in conjunction with Gloucester Clean Community, the club will exchange the bags for a composite bench to be placed at Walmart to accommodate Bay Transit patrons.
County clean community coordinator Rene Moring said all five county elementary schools, both county middle schools and the Weekday Learning Center participated in the collection drive in November.
Just before Thanksgiving, Moring said 35 large collection bags were taken to the Food Lion on Hargett Boulevard, where they weighed in at 318 pounds to put the Gloucester Lions more than halfway to their goal.
Page collected the most bags overall and filled 13 collection bags. Seventh graders in a class taught by Jaci Glaser led the way, collecting over 1,000 plastic bags alone. She said students in her three classes together collected 2,400 bags.
Bethel Elementary had the second highest total among schools, collecting enough plastic bags to fill nine collection bags. The other schools participating filled between one and five collection bags. All of the county schools except Page Middle School will continue to collect plastic bags through December.
Moring said there are also collection boxes at both county library locations, outside of the county treasurer’s office and at her office. As of last week, Moring and the Lions had collected a total of 46 large collection bags full of plastic bags.
Gloucester Lions Club President Raymond Weakland said the club has up to six months to reach its goal of 500 pounds, or about 40,500 plastic bags, but he is hopeful that help from the schools will put the club at its goal much sooner.
Weakland said the Food Lion ships the bags, along with its own bag collection, to Trex Company, Inc. He said Trex will recycle the bags and exchange them for a composite bench. He also said the collection effort has been so successful that the Lions hope to do it again in the late spring.