816-Lancasier Farming, Saturday, April 22, 1995
Student Sets Up Recycling Center For School Project
LORETTA GOLDEN
Cambria Co. Correspondent
PORTAGE (Cambria Co.)
Mike Conlon, a junior at Portage
Area High School, attended the
Governor’s School of Excellence
for Agricultural Sciences during
the summer of 1994. It was during
this five-week session at Penn
State University that it was sug
gested to the students that they use
their leadership ability and know
ledge to do something that would
benefit their communities. Mike
returned home with an enthusiasm
for doing a recycling project
Mike is extremely interested in
environmental issues. This parti
cular Governor’s School attracted
him because of its broad spectrum
of ag-related courses including
those concerning environmental
problems. Sixty-four high school
sophomores and juniors from
across the state attended these
classes.
“Recycling” and “Community
Service” are the basis of his
“paper-to-food” project Mary
Kenney, local high school science
teacher and sponsor of the Portage
Area High School Environmental
Club, helped Mike in fine-tuning
his idea.
Mike is the project coordinator
and is assisted by other club mem
bers. He explains that the purpose
of the project is threefold; first of
all, to recycle old newspapers; sec
ond, to help local dairy farmers
who are able to use shredded news
papers for animal bedding; and
third, to assist local needy families
with vouchers for dairy products.
Club members made posters
advertising their newspaper drive
and placed them in many places
throughout the community. Por
tage Area High School has a morn
ing television show and advertise
ments and project goals were out
lined on this show. Mike is the
“Anchor Man” for the school T.V.
Farms in Munster.
Aik* Conlon, jrc Popchak, Jason Wllilnsky, and Angt
into tha truck to taka to the dairy farm tor recycling.
news.
Mike, along with other club
members, has been at the high
school each Monday evening since
the beginning of November to
receive newspapers from local
residents. As soon as a full truck
load is collected they then take the
truck to Vale Wood Farms in Mun
ster and unload at the bams. Vale
Wood has a shredder and shreds
the paper as it is needed for bed
ding. This trip to Vale Wood is
made on Saturday mornings as the
loading and unloading requires a
few hours of time.
The papers are measured (a cer
tain number of inches of paper is
equal to one pound) and a refund
rate of between one-half cent and
one cent per pound is credited in
the form of vouchers. These
vouchers are then distributed to
local needy families and can be
redeemed for dairy products. The
vouchers, which were earned in
November, made the Thanksgiv
ing holiday a little brighter for
those who received them.
The Conlon family is very sup
portive of one another. Doug and
Sue, Mike’s father and mother, are
both employed by the local school
district Doug as a guidance
counselor and Sue as a physical
education and health teacher.
Acquaintances of the family say it
is easy to understand where Mike
gets his sense of committment.
Both Doug and Sue have been
involved in many activities that
benefit area youth. Younger sister
Molly is a freshman at Portage
Area where she is also involved in
many activities.
Mike is an honor student and is
committed to numerous extracurri
cular activities some of which
include the environmental club,
SADD, Student Council, sports.
National Honor Society, Peer
Tutoring Program, Peer Counselor
Program and many others.
Besides school-related activities,
he enjoys archery hunting and
lon helps a local resident unload newspapers that she brought to the
school for the recycling project.
music. He has received numerous
honors over the past few years with
the latest coming just a few days
ago. Mike has been chosen as Pen
nsylvania’s Ambassador for the •
EF Ambassador Tour. Represent
ing Pennsylvania, he, along with
50 U.S. and 11 Canadian student
delegates, will take a 10-day edu
cational tour of Europe this sum
mer. This is quite a prestigious
award. Doug is very proud of his
son’s accomplishment and feels
that this may be one consequence
of his attendance at the Governor’s
School and also his participation in
the “recycling” leadership project
On reflecting back to last sum
mer’s time spent at PSU, Mike
says that the Governor’s School
was one of the best experiences of
his life. One highlight was the
friendships formed with other stu
dents over the five-week period.
Another highlight was more per
sonal. “Besides the educational
advantages of using the Penn State
science labs and their instructors, I
learned about myself.”
The recycling project is impor
tant because it is helping him to see
that people want to recycle and
will cooperate. “Perhaps all that is
needed is to have the programs
available and for someone to take
charge.”
Mike’s future plans include col
lege, perhaps at a service academy
most likely majoring in some type
of environmental study.
The Conlon family from left, Molly, Sue, Mike, and
Ida’s
Notebook
by
Ida Risser
We’ve just had a long visit with
one of our children and her family
from Atlanta. It was different to
have youngsters in the house. The
girls were not very good eaters but
they liked my blueberry pancakes
and the scrambled eggs with bacon
for breakfast.
We visited the Hans Herr house
near Lancaster as it is the oldest
house in our area and it was used as'
both a dwelling and a meeting
house. I’d been there at least four
times before, but because my hus
band’s grandmother was a “Heir”
they wanted to see it again. Now
they are back home and I’ll miss all
those hugs that I got each morning.
Today I am studying to teach
our Bible Study group tomorrow.
As our daughter-in-law is in Chi
cago for a week, I ask our son to
come for dinner again. He was
here the other day and I made pig
stomach as it was nice to have a
guest to help us eat it But since I
also have a large committee meet
ing here tonight, who will expect
refreshments, I expected to be
quite busy.
Thus, when my husband ask me
to have dinner in his camper, that
he bought recently, I was reluctant
as I thought he wanted me to cook
in it. But, he said that he would do
it. I was really amazed as he has
never done something like that
before. He went to die grocery
store alone so I shall be surprised.
He has been working on the
camper all winter trying to figure
out where all the wires go and fix
ing the lights and brakes. He even
bought a generator and has asked
me to supply pots, pans, silverware
and dishes. He is more enthusiastic
than I am to use it for camping.
loug.