Student writes grant to expand school recycling program
Shelby County is a little more green thanks to the efforts of an Oak Mountain High School senior.
Myrah Taylor has been a Girl Scout for 12 years and first began her recycling project as a Brownie. She started then with phone books, and when she reached high school she expanded her goals.
As a sophomore, after learning that her high school did not have a recycling program in place, Taylor developed a marketing plan and submitted it to her principal, Joan Doyle, for approval. She wrote the grant and received $500 to place a bin for recycling paper in every classroom and office in the school.
Taylor, an active Girl Scout, has earned the organization’s program aid, leadership, bronze and silver awards. This year she is working toward a goal of earning the Gold Award, the highest service award given through the organization. The honor is only achieved by only 10 percent of Girl Scouts.
“When it was to time to select a service project to submit to the council, it did not surprise me that she chose a recycling project,” said Myrah’s mother, Brenda Taylor
Myrah recently wrote a grant for $2,500 from the St. Vincent’s Foundation to expand her program to include plastic and aluminum recycling. She gathered data on how the paper recycling program saved disposal costs at OMHS and freed up funds to be used for other student programs.
Approached by the student body president, she was asked about expanding the program to Heardmont Field, where football and track meets are held. She teamed up with the Student Government Association and submitted another grant proposal for a $1,000 Wal-Mart Community Foundation grant, this time incorporating the logo of the donor on the larger bins as a marketing tool.
She submitted and received the Wal-Mart grant in time for Earth Day on April 22. It will be used to put additional recycling bins for plastic and aluminum at the stadium at Heardmont Park. The most recent $2,500 grant will be used to put bins in the school cafeteria, gym, teacher workroom and at the football practice field.
Myrah is a senior at Oak Mountain High School where she serves as an Oak Mountain Ambassador, peer assistant and former member of the Starlette dance team. She wrote a brochure titled “ Neglected and Abused Children” that is used by the peer assistant as a teaching tool. This year she organized a Blue Ribbon fundraiser in support of Owen House, Shelby County’s Child Advocacy Center, and will present a check for $1,507.12 to that organization.
She is a member of the 2014 class of Shelby County Distinguished Young Women where she was a finalist and second alternate. She was also a top 10 finalist in the Miss Alabama Outstanding Teen scholarship program.
— Shelby County Schools