Students, faculty, and staff at Forge Road Elementary School on Friday, May 29, dedicated a new “green” bench donated to the school by the Palmyra Rotary Club.
According to Palmyra Area School District superintendent Dr. Bernie Kepler, the Rotary Club collected 1,002 pounds of plastics and submitted the haul to the Trek Bench program, which created the bench for use in the environmental outdoor classroom at the school.
Tyler Frantz, an elementary STEM teacher at Forge Road, said he worked on the grant for establishing the outdoor learning space. A year ago, he explained in an email, the school was awarded outdoor education funding from the state Department of Environmental protection “as part of a grant cohort led by Stroud Water Research to convert a vacant former kindergarten playground into an outdoor learning space.”
Stroud’s environmental education specialists helped advise the transformation, Frantz said, and the space “was revitalized over the past several months with new infrastructure for greater aesthetics and student safety.”
“We aimed to make it a welcoming space, not only for students to form deeper connections with nature on our school grounds, but also to serve as an eco-friendly model for our community,” he said in the email. “The seating and raised beds are constructed with recycled plastic materials, the soil is organic and pesticide free, and all of our plants are native Pennsylvania perennials that will enhance biodiversity, filter air pollutants and support pollinators. Project Monarch Watch supplied milkweed plugs to serve as a waystation for migrating butterflies, and we also added two bird nesting boxes and a small water feature.”
The school partnered with local businesses including Long Nursery and Werner Lumber Ace Hardware Hershey “to demonstrate that a community committed to sustainable practices, environmental literacy, and student wellbeing can achieve remarkable results for the greater good of all,” Frantz said. Palmyra Rotary, he added, “supplied this beautiful bench made from local soft plastic waste.”
“I credit the success of this project to our supportive and forward-thinking administrative team who embraced my idea to vastly improve this space for the betterment of our students, as well as the learning opportunities that will result from more regular exposure to local flora and fauna on our school grounds,” he said. “Nature is a treasure, and we are so proud to share it with our students.”
Abigail Spangler, from Palmyra Rotary, said in an email that the recycled plastic bench “represents much more than a place to sit — it symbolizes what can happen when a community comes together to support sustainability and environmental education.”
“Created from one thousand and two pounds of recycled plastic collected through local donations, the bench serves as a lasting reminder that small actions can create meaningful environmental change,” she said. “One of the most impactful parts of the project was watching community members become more aware of just how much single-use plastic they utilize in their everyday lives. By collecting these materials together and transforming something so harmful to the environment into something positive and lasting for students and families, the project became both an educational experience and a symbol of what sustainable practices can accomplish.”
Spangler said the project “was an opportunity to help demonstrate the importance of environmental responsibility while also encouraging environmental literacy starting at a young age. By creating something visible and lasting within the outdoor classroom, I hope the bench inspires future generations to become advocates for sustainability and more engaged members of society.”
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