Ten years ago, when Judi Copley came to Davis Elementary School as its media specialist, she was asked to head up the Green Team Initiative set forth by former Bryant School District Superintendent Richard Abernathy. Copley was more than willing to do so.
“Recycling has always been something that’s been an interest of mine,” Copley said. “We recycle in North Little Rock. It is normal, part of our trash pickup. I was very excited to start a Green Team here at school — that was my first year at Davis.”
Copley, who is a member of Amboy United Methodist Church in North Little Rock, said she has always partnered with the Heifer Project, which has done recycling programs with the church, so transitioning to the school was a natural progression.
“It has been a learning process for me, too, and how to do it properly,” Copley said. “The rules change quite often, depending on which company we use, so it has been a challenge keeping up with the changes.”
The Green Team Initiative was more or less absorbed by Recycle Saline a few years ago and has spawned Youth Environment Ambassadors for all the school districts in the county. Copley was recently named the 2019 YEA! Team Leader of the Year.
“First, I want to say congratulations to Mrs. Judi Copley,
who has been selected as the YEA! Team Leader of the Year,” said Tiffany Dunn, executive director of Recycle Saline. “She has been a part of the recycling-education effort since even before we had the official YEA! Team program.”
Dunn said she recently happened to find one of the very first coloring books from Recycle Saline, created in either 2012 or 2013, that used to belong to a former student from Davis Elementary School who is now a junior in high school.
“That same student even became one of the first-place winners in the 2017
Re-Fashion Bash as a ninth-grader,” Dunn said. “Not only has Mrs. Copley had a stand-out program for Re-Fashion Bash; her YEA! Team has held booths at District Academic Fairs and has presented the YEA! program to the Bryant School Board.”
The Re-Fashion Bash is an annual event that is intended to “educate the general public about recycling in a fun and interactive environment,” according to Recycle Saline’s website, www.recyclesaline.org.
Copley said it is the biggest fundraiser of the year for
students in kindergarten through the 12th grade to design clothing they can model onstage.
“[The clothing] is all made out of recycled materials or recyclable materials,” Copley said. “This year’s focus was cardboard and aluminum — it is a very prestigious event.
“It is run by Recycle Saline and a modeling agency out of Little Rock. It is a fun way to get people interested in what can be recycled.”
Dunn said Copley’s YEA! Team actively participates in contests and, as one of their projects, collects prescription glasses in conjunction with the Lions Club, as well as hosting media announcements at Davis Elementary.
“I was very flattered to receive YEA! Team Leader of the Year,” Copley said. “I’m, honestly, just a facilitator, and it has been my kids who have adopted this and taken off with it. They have complete ownership of the program here at Davis. … If we can educate the kids growing up, we can educate their parents and families on the importance of recycling. It has been great for me, simply because it was my team that won.
“Some of these kids have been doing this their whole elementary career. It is an award for them as much as it is for me.”
Copley said there are about 600 students at Davis Elementary, and the YEA! Team consists of 14 members, including fourth- and fifth-graders. She said she has previously opened the team to all ages, but it seems to work best for those grades.
“Over the past 10 years, there have been about 200 kids who have gone through the program,” Copley said. “We have collected glasses — used prescription glasses — for the Lions Club. That’s our project outside the school.”
She said that last year, her team collected about 100 pairs of used glasses, but this year, so far, have collected only about 20.
“We just give them to the Lions Club, and they send them to the Lions Eyeglass Recycling Center,” Copley said.
She said her school currently uses single-stream recycling, which means recycled materials don’t have to be separated.
“We just have a big white bin that we have out in the back and is dumped every week,” Copley said. “[We] cannot include [glass] in the bins because it has to be done separately, so we don’t recycle glass here because I don’t have the means to do it.
“We mostly get paper, cardboard and plastic bottles.”
Madison Moody, a seventh-grader in the Bryant School District, said having Mrs. Copley as her YEA! team leader inspired her to make a change and make the Earth better, just by doing something small.
“She made me realize how important it really is to recycle,” Moody said. “At first, I didn’t care too much, but now, ever since she invited me to be on the YEA! team, it has made an impact on me.”
Moody said she and her family recycle at home, and “put all of it at the recycle place every Saturday.”
“I enjoyed feeling I was helping being a part of something to make the world somehow better,” Moody said. “Maybe it wasn’t something big, but it made somewhat of a difference.”
Copley is originally from Paragould but moved to Michigan when she was 12. She eventually moved back to Arkansas and graduated from Nashville High School in 1984. She earned a bachelor’s degree in early-childhood education in 1998 and a master’s degree in library and media in 2004 from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.
“My husband moved a lot, so I took the long route to get through college,” said Copley, who currently lives in North Little Rock.
Copley is finishing up her 25th year in education, having also served in the North Little Rock School District for three years prior to starting at Bryant, and in the Stuttgart and Hampton school districts.
Copley said she did her student teaching at Collegeville Elementary School, “a thousand years ago,” and said if she ever had the opportunity to come back to Bryant, “then I would do whatever I could to get there.”
“Mrs. Copley has led the district in recycling education,” said Karen Walters, superintendent for the Bryant School District. “She has worked with many students over the past 10 years to educate and equip them to be leaders in recycling.
“We are so proud of her leadership and strong program at Davis Elementary.”
Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.