Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Shannen Mota, Lauren Fahey, Kristina Yarmaloff, Magaly Salazar, Liliane

Elkhoury

We are the Fabric Finders, a group of five business management students at the University of Massachusetts

Dartmouth. We have completed the America Recycles Day (ARD) Team Project at Winslow elementary

School with the 4th and 5th grade to raise recycling awareness in the greater New Bedford local community.

Our main focus is to teach the students on how clothing and other fabrics can be recycled as well as to engage

them in a school wide clothing drive. We reached our ultimate goal of raising 500+ items of clothing and

fabrics.

We believe in promoting recycling awareness to the younger generation because it is important for them to

start learning how to protect their environment at a young age.

Introduction

Our Mission

Operation Principles

Our Goals

Community Partners

First Meeting

First Event

Second Event

Actual Donating of Clothes

Team Plan for Improvement

Individual Roles

Meet Project Criteria

Teamwork Lesson Learned

Conclusion

We are the Fabric Finders, collectively we are

striving to better the New Bedford community by

improving recycling habits.

Our mission is to promote and educate good

recycling habits to the fourth and fifth grade students of Winslow Elementary School.

Communication

Time Management

Organized

Planning

Clear Goals

No Team Member Left Behind- Equal Shares of work

Goal• Collect 500 articles

of clothing

Goal• Donate all items

raised to the

Salvation Army in

New Bedford.

Goal• Make recycling fun

Result• Created different

games made out of

recycled materials

Result• We accomplished our

goal by doubling

Result• Dropped off clothing to

Salvation Army and

Red Cross drop off.

Working with 4th and 5th grade at Winslow Elementary.

Main contact with Lori Silveira.

Paula Bailey the principal.

Marissa Perez –Dormitzer New Bedford Recycling representative.

Met with Lori Silveira and fellow 4th grade teacher to

discuss ideas.

All notions approved by Winslow Elementary.

Schedule future event.

Met with 4th and fifth grade students.

Introduced ourselves.

Questioned the children’s knowledge about recycling.

Taught the children about recycling.

Delivered clothing boxes.

Distributed the flyer and permission slip to students for parents.

Got students pumped up for future event.

LET THE CLOTHING DRIVE BEGIN!!!

Gathered 4th and 5th grade in auditorium.

Collected data of how many items gathered from each class

Engaged students in different activities that incorporated recycled materials.

Announced winner of clothing drive and presented homework pass.

Surprised remaining three classes with homework pass for excellent participation.

Thanked teachers and students for their generous help in our semester project.

Gathered clothing from classrooms at Winslow.

Gathered and bagged enormous amount of clothes

Contacting different locations to accept our donation.

Found the perfect location at 1103 Shawmut Ave New Bedford

Contributed our donation to Red Cross and Salvation Army.

Back home excited with our achievement.

Trouble with finding a school that could fulfill our mission.

Their donation exceeded our expectation.

Difficulties in carrying the clothes to vehicles.

Unexpected bad weather.

Miscommunication with salvation Army employees.

Finding the location to donate clothes.

What we plan to do… What we plan to stop doing…

Manage time more wisely. Stop procrastinating.

Communicate with each other more frequently.Try not to take on more work than each team member

can handle.

Delegate work fairly. Getting off topic in meetings.

Ask for help if needed.Stressing out over things that can be easily solved with

teamwork.

Lauren

Contact Manager

Meeting Coordinator

Kristina

Classroom Coordinator

Wiki Coordinator

Shannen

Team Leader

Secretary/ Note Taker

Magaly

Photographer

Liliane

Recycling Tip

Service to Community Partner(s) A close relationship with Marissa Perez

Contact with Winslow Elementary

Contact with Lori Silveira and Paula Bailey

ARD Event(s) Assembly number one which was held on America’s recycle day.

Assembly number two Taught students different ways to use recycled materials

Gathered statistics of number of people we directly and indirectly impacted .

Community Involvement/Recycling Awareness, Education, and Behavior Winslow Elementary student taught about the importance about recycling.

Sustainability- . The props used in our activities at our main event were made out of recyclable goods

Team Engagement

Although we had problems and obstacles our engagement on the project helped us overcome all the

obstacles and accomplish our goal as a team.

Encouragement

Our team was made up by people from different countries and ages and at times it was hard to be on the

same page. As a diverse team we needed to encourage each others to get our tasks completed.

Time Management

We learned together as a team that we need to take the initiative to work through the struggles of a

task, rather than put them to the side and avoid completing them in a timely matter.

Healthy Conflict

After getting to know each other and learning to work as a team. We learned to have healthy conflict and

debate on our ideas and thoughts.

Goals Accomplished!

Raised awareness to the young generation.

Raised 1145 pieces of clothing.

The classroom totals were as follows

◦ Fifth grade classroom number one- 333 items

◦ Fifth grade classroom number two- 253 items

◦ Fourth grade classroom number one- 250 items

◦ Fourth grade classroom number two- 150 items

Overall total of 991 items (raised within one week in Winslow)

Indirectly impact the community of New Bedford like parents, teachers and the actual people benefit from

the clothing.

Gain experience working as a team.

Learned our strength and weakness and how to combine them to make the ultimate team.