Recycling to build a playground

As 11-year-old Hewlett resident Avigail Borah walked home from a friend’s house with her mother Andrea Borah, they were thinking of an idea for her bat mitzvah community service project when they saw all the bottles on the street.

“Avigail wanted to build a playground for children in Israel so we tried to figure out a way to do that because I didn’t feel comfortable asking people for money,” Andrea said. “We came up with a great concept to get funds — recycling bottles.”

With the help of her family, classmates, school principal and local businesses, Borah, a student at Bnot Shulamith Middle School in Lawrence, is trying to collect and recycle more than 80,000 bottles, and donate the proceeds to the One Israel Fund to build a playground for Jewish children in Israel.

On Sunday at Brach’s Five Towns Supermarket, Borah will hold her first bottle drive from 10 a.m. to noon. People can come, bring their recyclables and donate the proceeds to Borah’s project. The Hewlett-based One Israel Fund is committed to sustaining the safety of Israeli men, women and children and renewing those who have been affected by the Gaza evacuation.

Scott Feltman, One Israel Fund’s executive director, said Borah’s Girl Scout Troop sold cookies to send to Israeli soldiers and when the troop was invited to a One Israel Fund dinner. At the dinner Borah’s idea took hold after viewing a video about a woman who was building a playground in memory of her son who was an Israeli soldier.

“Kid’s are unique because they don’t understand failure where as adults look at all the possibilities of how something won’t work,” Feltman said. “It’s an amazing thing when an 11-year-old has the foresight and maturity to put on her own campaign and think of others, especially those whom she may never meet.”

Rookie Billet, the principal at Bnot Shulamith, said she is proud of Borah and thinks she is empowering her fellow students to be involved with her project.

“Students have been religious about recycling instead of throwing bottles away,” Billet said. “Even after weekends or holidays, students bring in bottles from home to recycle so Avigail’s project will gain more money.”

Borah also said it was Billet’s idea to have a competition among the grades at Bnot Shulamith to see which grade can collect the most bottles. “Whichever grade collects the most bottles, gets an ice cream party,” Borah said.

Andrea said if people are unable to attend the bottle drive, receipts from recycling could be dropped off at the One Israel Fund offices in Hewlett. She also said if anyone wants to volunteer or hold a bottle drive at a school or place of employment, to contact the One Israel Fund.

Currently, Borah’s recycling project has raised $500. She and her mother have also made a Facebook page titled, “Building from Bottles” and sent flyers around the school about the project and bottle drive. Also, while Bnot Shulamith is the only school currently holding the bottle drive, several other schools are in contact with the One Israel Fund about starting one.

Andrea thinks her daughter is learning the value of saving and about team spirit through her project. She also noticed that though people can’t afford to donate money, they still want to give their time and help. “Avigail is seeing the power of how everyone works together,” Andrea said. “People she doesn’t even know are helping out.”

Borah said the biggest challenge since beginning the project is finding time to return the bottles. “Between everything life gives me and challenges me with, it’s hard to find the time,” she said. “It’s a combination of life, weather and lines (at the recycling machines) that get in the way.”