Northrop third-graders surpass 600 light strings in recycling drive

Third-grade students at Eliza Northrop Elementary School continue to make strong progress in their holiday light recycling effort, collecting 661 strings of lights so far as part of the school’s Lights for Lions program.

The project, now in its second year, partners the school with the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo’s Lights for Lions recycling drive, which supports lion and cheetah conservation efforts in Tanzania. Last year, students collected 800 strings of lights, which were recycled through the zoo’s program.

Teacher Tiffany Boza said the response from the community has been enthusiastic, with many donors arriving at the school after reading about the effort in the newspaper.

“Thank you to the community for helping this program and supporting our students,” Boza said.

Students have taken the lead on much of the work, creating posters to display around the building to promote the drive, collecting and counting donated lights, boxing them for delivery and tracking weekly totals using data graphs. Boza said watching students collaborate across classrooms and take ownership of the project has been especially rewarding.

The collection will continue at the school through Jan. 30, with a parent volunteer assisting in delivering the donated lights to the zoo ahead of the program’s February deadline.

Proceeds from the recycling effort benefit Lion Landscapes, a Cleveland Metroparks Zoo conservation partner that works to reduce human-carnivore conflicts and support long-term protection strategies for large carnivores in Tanzania.