Hanahan Middle Wins $30,000 Lexus Eco Challenge

The Hanahan Middle School Eco Challenge Team has won the $30,000 Grand Prize of the Lexus Eco Challenge.

In the last three years the school has won first place among middle schools nationally, but this year is the first time they took home the overall Grand Prize. Of the prize money, $20,000 is awarded to the students and $10,000 is awarded to the school and teacher advisor. 

For their winning project the team wanted to spread the word about the benefits of recycling in the community. They initiated the Caps for a Cause Campaign collecting 69,247 hard plastic bottle caps in just one month. These caps will be recycled and turned into a bike rack and benches for the school.

College of Charleston Office of Sustainability and SPAWAR are among many local businesses that helped achieve this goal. Students also traveled to the Statehouse in Columbia to attend the Recyclonomics S.C. Legislative Day on Feb. 20. Here they lobbied to representatives about recycling issues with a goal to increase recycling rates to 75 percent by the year 2030. 

Team members include Lexis Davis, Tyler Futrell, Caroline Hall, Andrea Heyward, Kimberly Johnson, Madison Moeller, Kirsten Songer, Kaylee Stacey, Britney Tsui, Aaron VanMaanen, and teacher advisor Ms.  Alexandra Davis.