Students from Cardinal Ritter High School in Indianapolis have been participating in GREEN, with support from the American Bar Association, since 2005.
This year, as part of their continuing effort to improve water quality in Indianapolis, they decided to participate in the Great Indy Butt Out Contest, a program of Keep Indianapolis Beautiful’s Great Indy CleanUp. The Great Indy Butt Out gives students a chance to make a difference in their community by collecting cigarette litter - the number one form of litter in the United States.
Students in Mary Pat O’Connor’s Environmental Science class collected the litter within walking distance from their school and in the parking area along Crooked Creek where they do their water quality testing.
The fruit of their labor? A total of 41.4 pounds of cigarette butt litter! 20 cigarette butts weigh .12 ounces*, which means (great math problem here!) the students collected approximately 110,414 butts!
Cardinal Ritter was recognized by Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard on Saturday, April 25, 2009, at the Great Indy Cleanup kick-off event. The butt collections of the six participating schools were on display. Cardinal Ritter, along with the second place school, won the opportunity to paint sustainability murals on city recycling containers.
Congratulations, Cardinal Ritter! You are making a difference in the environmental health of Indianapolis!