BOTTLE TOP MURAL
AT JOHN POOLE MIDDLE SCHOOL
BY JESSICA MENSE
Sixth grader, Jessica Mense has created a bottle cap mural at John Poole Middle School (JPMS). It has 5 panels with a picture of a timber wolf howling in front of the earth and the words "Timberwolves protect the earth" above and below it. It will be hung up in the hallways of JPMS for all to see.
She was inspired by her older sister Sophia Mense. Sophia created a similar mural out of bottle caps with the students of Poolesville Elementary School. Too see her story, visit the "Don't Drop The Top!" page of this website.
Jessica has been a Girl Scout for 7 years since kindergarten when she was a Girl Scout Daisy. She has earned her Girl Scout Bronze Award, the highest national award that a Girl Scout Junior in grades 4-5 can earn. The mural was part of her Silver Award project. The Girl Scout Silver Award is the highest award a Girl Scout Cadette in Middle School, grades 6-8, can earn. The other of the project is this online publication by which she hopes to raise awareness of Earth Day.
You may be wondering why the mural was made out of recycled bottle caps and not just painted. Well bottle caps have a terrible effect on marine life.
The process all starts at that moment when you drop a cap on the ground. When it rains, the bottle caps get washed onto the street and into the drainage system. They then go from there to the Chesapeake bay and eventually into the ocean. Once in the ocean most marine life like dolphins, turtles, and albatross mistake the bottle caps as food, and then they eat them. If they eat enough of them then the caps will block their digestive system, and unfortunately they will die. But all of this can be prevented if that first step never happens, if you never drop that cap on the ground.
Here in Montgomery County, we can recycle tops, just be sure to take them off of their container. By looking at the mural, you can see the large impact of thousands of bottle caps. Let’s keep as many as we can out of the ocean and protect our marine life!
For more information about the effect that bottle caps have on the environment, visit Don’tDropTheTop.weebly.com
step 7- final project!
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