The fruits of an Oak Bluffs School project to decorate reusable cotton bags will be on display at the Oak Bluffs library on Saturday, April 8, from 1 pm to 3 pm. The project is aimed at heightening awareness about alternatives to disposable plastic bags. It began after Oak Bluffs schoolteacher Holly Thomas invited Samantha Look of the Vineyard Conservation Society (VCS) to her fourth grade classroom several times, to share information about the environmental effects of plastic bags.
“My students were horrified to learn that sea turtles eat plastic bags because they think they’re jellyfish, and that other marine wildlife have been found dead because of plastic bags in their stomachs,” Ms. Thomas said. Ms. Look’s talks generated a bag-decoration project in Ms. Thomas’s class, where students created their own designs on blank reusable bags provided by VCS.
Ms. Thomas’ students presented their decorated bags at one of the school’s Friday community meetings, which classes throughout the school lead by rotation, presenting various topics of interest to the whole student body. Ms. Thomas said that after her students displayed their bags to their gathered peers, they relayed information they’d learned from Ms. Look about the environmental hazards posed by plastic bags. “Jaws dropped, and you could have heard a pin drop,” she said.
After the meeting, the reusable bag decoration project went schoolwide, and art teacher Kim O’Conner spearheaded the effort. VCS provided bags for every student to decorate. The bags ultimately numbered in the hundreds, and will all be on display at the Oak Bluffs library. Thereafter they will be given away to the public for general use.