Have you ever dismissed an idea to recycle or compost your garbage because you doubt one person's efforts can really make a difference? Eighth-grade students at West Branch Junior/Senior High School challenged that misconception by launching a school-wide composting program. The idea came about when students in teacher Joe Matson's social studies class registered for the Lexus Environmental Challenge. The national competition is designed to empower young people to take action and help the environment. The grants program, which involved more than 3,500 students from Maine to Hawaii this past year, awarded schools with innovative environmental projects a combined $1 million in prizes -- West Branch among them.

"It started out as a challenge for a grant which students got money for, but it's turned into a lot more as far as learning and being involved, working as a team and employing hands-on learning, it is definitely something that is going to stick with them," said principal Sean Wechtenhiser.

In partnership with cafeteria staff, a team of students collected unused food each day and deposited it with a mix of leaves and other brown material in bins in the courtyard. Not only were kids involved in the composting process, they will see the results when the soil they have created is used for other projects such as the green house and a new pond planned for next year.

"Instead of sending the unused food to a landfill, we're sending it back into the environment," explained eighth-grader Jeremiah Dobo.

In addition to composting, students recycled 370 pounds of newspapers and magazines, saving even more landfill space. The underlying message? "That it's not hard to do something for the environment," said eighth-grader Andrew Larson.

It was that message Matson hoped to instill in students not only today, but as they step into roles as decision makers and leaders in the community, state and beyond. "The composting, the recycling that we've started are things anyone can do. And as students become adults, hopefully the values that they learned at the middle-school level will be things that they carry with them for the rest of their lives," Matson said.