GIA Helps Carlsbad Boys & Girls Club Raise $1,400

Recycling program sparks kids’ interest in the environment

Gus Quinones of the Boys & Girls Club of Carlsbad, right, watches as the members of R-Kids Green Team load GIA's cans and bottles into the club's vans. Photo by Robert Weldon/GIA.

GIA's recycling program with the Boys & Girls Club of Carlsbad is a hands-on lesson about the environment of the club's R-Kids Green Team. Photo by Robert Weldon/GIA.

GIA's recycling program with the Boys & Girls Club of Carlsbad is a hands-on lesson about the environment for the club's R-Kids Green Team. Photo by Robert Weldon/GIA.

CARLSBAD, Calif. – Nov. 11, 2009 – The Green Team at the Gemological Institute of America got together with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Carlsbad earlier this year with an idea that would put GIA’s recyclable trash to good use and raise funds for the club. GIA employees collect the cans and bottles, and the club picks up and processes them, then receives the California Refund Value.

“The idea from GIA sparked an interest in our kids and my number of helpers went from 5 to about 30,” says Gustavo Quinones, who runs the R-Kids Green Team for the Boys & Girls Club. “It’s been an awesome experience to see how a Carlsbad company like GIA cares about the future of our kids. Between the GIA donations and the recyclable items collected at the club, we’ve raised $1,400 so far this year.”

That represents approximately 84 bottles, 400 cans and 830 plastic bottles contributed by GIA each month.

“Multiply that by 12 months and you come up with an impressive number of cans and bottles – more than 16,000 – that won't be going into our landfills,” says Ashton Covington, the GIA Green Team member who arranged the program with the Boys & Girls Club. “More importantly, we are able to make a difference for this great community children’s program.”

The recycling program is also a hands-on lesson about the environment for the 6- to 12-year-old members of the R-Kids Green Team. Twice a month the group picks up GIA’s cans and bottles and prepares them for the recycling center. They sort the plastic, glass and cans, take off caps, pour out leftover liquids and crush the cans. Some even began to recycle at home and a few bring items in to donate to the club project.

“Recycling is a fun and exciting way to help the environment,” says 9-year-old Jessica Tostado. “R-Kids Green Team recycles because it’s good and we earn money for the club.”

Those funds have been used to buy sturdy recycling containers to hold the collected items, fund a cooking club that was cut from the group’s 2009 budget, supplement field trips to Boomers and buy monthly ice cream treats for the Green Team kids, Quinones said.

The GIA Green Team was created to promote environmental awareness and encourage employees to reduce, reuse and recycle at work and at home.

If you are interested in sending your cans and bottles to the Boys & Girls Club of Carlsbad – or have any other ideas about how you can help – contact Gustavo Quinones at (760) 729-0956, ext. 315 or gus@bgccarlsbad.org.