Three seventh grade HJHS EAST students wanted to solve a problem in our local community park. The problem: dog poop on the ground. The solution: dog bag stands placed in the park for citizens to scoop, bag, and trash their animal's waste.
These three students researched other towns with dog bag stands, concerns and issues with dog waste exposure, and other methods and ideas to solve the problem. After many discussions, research, and a project pitch presentation design, the three students were ready to make their pitch to our Parks and Recreation director. He attended a meeting with the three girls in the HJHS EAST classroom and absolutely loved the idea.
The new problem: funding for the stands. The new solution: pitch the idea to the Harrison Parks and Recreation Board of Directors and start a donors choose project. The three students went and presented to the board, and its members readily agreed to support the project. The local newspaper was there to cover the meeting, and the day after the article was published about the students presentation, a business man in Nashville, Tennessee, contacted the journalist about the idea and offered to donate and ship the two stands the girls were requesting for the park. Of course, this was incredibly exciting for the students and clearly solved their problem with no out of pocket cost to our program or community.
The company, BioPet Laboratories specializes in pet DNA testing. The students have started a partnership with the company in hopes of future projects and connections. They still have their donors choose page up in hopes of receiving funding for two additional stands for our local sports complex. Since the community park is right next to our campus, it is very convenient for students to replace the bags in the stands and refill them with new ones.
Links to newspaper articles:
harrisondaily.com/news/doggy-bags-not-for-leftovers-girls-present-plan-to-remove/article_eec1201c-9bc1-11e6-a123-0f9d99b79fea.html
http://harrisondaily.com/news/donation-to-fight-waste-stands-will-help-people-clean-up/article_3e047b74-a851-11e6-b475-9766aac99fc9.html?mode=image&photo=0