FOUNTAIN VALLEY : Artworks Promote Recycling

Los Amigos High School art students sifted through garbage cans on campus to search for materials to create holiday-themed art.

“It was gross, it was dirty, it was all smelly,” said junior Kelly Nguyen.

The school’s freshman art class garnered top honors in a contest for their work of art made from throwaways and recyclables.

They made a Christmas wreath with used milk cartons and soda cans. Students also used homework paper to make a big bow, recycled cardboard to make stars and fringed foiled pizza trays to encircle the wreath.

“It shows others that trash is just not dirty,” said David Nguyen, 14, a freshman who helped put together the wreath with five other classmates.

As a way to promote recycling and environmental concerns, the cities of Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach, in cooperation with Rainbow Disposal Co. Inc. and Huntington Beach Mall, held a contest challenging students to create seasonal-themed displays made from trash.

Top winners and honorable mention entries will be on display beginning today at Huntington Beach Mall.

Hundreds of art students--kindergartners to seniors from both cities--teamed to use their talents and submitted 25 entries, said Susan Lynn, Fountain Valley’s environmental programs manager.

“It was a way to teach kids that waste can be reused,” Lynn said.

Lynn said while one can tell the works are made of trash, they are “truly beautiful.”

Contest rules required students to work in groups because that is the “way we are going to resolve the environmental crisis. We have to work together.”

The contest was also a hands-on lesson for students to learn about how much trash is generated on their campuses.

Kennedy Vu, 15, who also worked on Los Amigos’ winning entry, said he realized “there are a lot of cans out there. People should recycle more.”

Students also used juice cartons, lunch bags, math papers, straws, chewing gum, pine needles, polystyrene food trays, used chicken wire, watch bands, golf balls and bicycle pedals for their works.

Los Amigos’ art teacher Kevin Ferguson said that because school budgets for art materials are tight, the contest enlightened students about new material sources for their art projects.

“We are forced to look for alternatives,” said Ferguson, who already promotes using cardboard for projects and reminds students that famous artists such as Picasso have made artworks out of recyclables.

Ferguson said that by using trash his students learned “that they don’t have to use traditional media to create something.”

But Ferguson said he did have a problem getting his students to understand that the idea of the contest was to use plain trash.

“They wanted to paint and cover up everything,” he said.

Fountain Valley Mayor John Collins said the contest is part of the two cities’ joint effort to teach the young about the necessity of reducing the amount of waste taken to landfills.

Huntington Beach Mayor Linda Moulton-Patterson said, “Recycled materials can be used for just about anything.”

Other first-place winners included:

* Leadership students at Vista View Elementary School, Fountain Valley, Jill Stouse, teacher.

* Fourth-grade students at Isojiro Oka School, Huntington Beach, Vanessa Neal, teacher.