By Kathy Chaffin
kchaffin@salisburypost.com
LANDIS ó Exhibits from about 300 middle school students in the Rowan-Salisbury School System were on display at the “Trash to Treasure” Recycled Art Show at Corriher-Lipe Thursday afternoon.
“This isn’t judged,” said Lynn Haynes, art teacher at Corriher-Lipe. “The whole school system has the idea of going green. That’s our theme for this year.
“What we decided to do is celebrate creativity and ingenuity, especially in these economic times.”
The exhibits were showcased in the school’s media center and hallways leading to it. Interspersed among them were statistics about recycling that Haynes’ students wanted to highlight.
Among them:
– The average American throws away 4.5 pounds of trash per day.
– Americans throw away enough glass bottles every two weeks to have filled the 1,350-foot World Trade Towers.
– The energy saved by recycling just one bottle could light a 100-watt bulb for four hours.
– In the United States, an additional 5 million tons of waste is generated during the holidays. Four million tons of this is wrapping paper and bags.
– Americans toss out enough paper and plastic cups, forks and spoons every year to circle the earth 300 times.
– Up to 80 percent of an average car can be recycled.
Students from Corriher-Lipe created artwork for the show along with students from China Grove, Erwin, North, Southeast and West.
Matthew Johnson, a sixth-grader at North, entered a sand cast of a foot titled, “One Small Step for Man …”
Destinee Beavers, an eighth-grader at Southeast, made a basket and cover by wrapping coils of newspaper with purple yarn.
Corriher-Lipe seventh graders created a variety of sculptures out of folded paperbacks, stacking some on top of each other.
Students at the school also created a display of CDs decorated with plastic cutouts.
Emily Beaver, an eighth- grader from West, created a frog mosaic out of pieces of green soft drink cans. The frog was displayed on a section of newspaper pasted on cardboard backing with painted corrugated cardboard as matting.
Corriher-Lipe eighth- graders used recycled items to create flags that will be sent to teacher Amy Shorter’s husband, Matt, who is serving overseas, for distribution among his troop. One of the flags was made by his son, Nathan.
Sandra Gonzalez made her flag out of construction paper and pasted words from magazines on it, including “Family” and “Freedom.”
Katie Kepley of Erwin created a shadow box assemblage from a variety of recycled items ó including bobby pins, a key, crews, bottle caps, etc., and covered them with light blue paint from the Rowan County Recycling Center.
Emmanuel Fields and Brandon Lowe, eighth-graders at North, entered their handmade paper created from recycled paper.
Corriher-Lipe eighth- graders Hailey Cline, Dustin Stewart, Kaytlin Pless and Brittany Buffington teamed up to decorate a butterfly-shaped piece of pressboard with such items as the tops of old magic markers, buttons, golf tees, ribbons, bobby pins, razor heads with the blades coated with glue, large wooden spoons, pop-tops from soft drink cans and mixer beaters as antennae.
Their teacher, Lynn Haynes, also made a butterfly exhibit using such recyclables as pieces from various games, including Scrabble letters spelling “Save, Recycle, Reuse, Donate” over and over.
She used the sole of a tennis shoe to create the body of the butterfly and artist paintbrushes as antennae.
“This is great,” said Jennifer Hancock, assistant principal at China Grove Middle, of the butterfly. “Every butterfly needs a sole.”
Actually, Hancock said when asked about her comment, she was just quoting China Grove Middle Principal James Davis’ reaction when he saw it.
Spencer Botteon, a sixth- grader at North, used painted popsicle sticks to make a pioneer aircraft for his entry, titled “Maverick Air: First in Flight.”
Michael Ranson, an eighth- grader at North, used magazine photos of his favorite wrestler, John Cena, to decorate a recycled can for his entry titled, “You Light Up My Life.” Michael was at the art show with his grandmother, Evelyn Cuechko, his caregiver, Shasta Goodman, and his 8-year-old sister, Abbie.
“We’re so proud of him,” Cuechko said. “We’re proud of Abbie, too.”
Christina Yang, a seventh- grader from North, used cardboard to make a wagon covered with blue gingham cloth. Her entry was titled, “How the West Was Won.”
Haynes said more than 100 people attended the art show, held from 4 to 6 p.m. “I’m very pleased with the turnout,” she said.
Contact Kathy Chaffin at 704-797-4249.