Hundreds take part in cleanup day

Luke Christensen, Mackenzie Gallagher, Valerie Rainey and Hesston Whitley, from the Nevada Middle School Action Class, look at a laptop computer that was brought in for recycling Saturday during the annual Nevada-Vernon County Clean-up Day at the City-County Recycling Center.

Skip Jenkins, left backhoe, and David Irwin compact the trash in one of the large commercial trash containers at the Public Works site during Saturday morning annual Fall Clean-up Day.

Matt Yarick, one of the volunteers helping with the Fall Clean-up Day, carries a TV in for one of the Vernon County residents who wanted to get rid of it. Nevada Middle School students spearheaded an electronic waste recycling effort that met with great success. The students will take these items to the recycling company in Springfield for disposition. EcoStorm, a team of seven students from the Nevada Middle School eighth grade Action Class is competing in the third annual Lexus Eco Challenge, a national contest that encourages middle and high school students to develop and implement environmental programs that positively impact their communities. The team consists of Gage Bristow, Luke Christensen, Mackenzie Gallagher, Connor Harbit, Valerie Rainey, and Hesston Whitley, and the group aims to reduce electronic waste and educate the public about it through their project.

Citizens and city employees were working hard on a citywide cleanup effort on Saturday. Nevada Public Works employee Joe Carter puts trash into the scoop of a backhoe. --Photos by Ralph Pokorny/Daily Mail

Wilma Irwin unties plastic milk jugs before putting them in a crusher. More photos on Page 3. Photos by Ralph Pokorny/Daily Mail