PKMS teacher Andrea Traywick with Kreg Haney and Reagan Thomas.

By Jenny Huggins
News Reporter

Kreg Haney and Reagan Thomas are attempting to make history with their middle school science fair project. 
The two Pansy Kidd Middle School eighth grade students started a recycling project approximately two years ago. They started the project with five recycling boxes for a science fair project.  
Last year they secured a $1,000 grant from Wal-Mart to purchase 30 recycling boxes for their school. There was enough to place one in every room. 
They have since then measured the 30 boxes and found that in three weeks time they save 1,140 and one half pounds of paper from the boxes. 
They have arranged for KIBOIS Community Action to pick up the paper on Fridays and take it to Fayetteville, Ark., to be recycled. 
Haney and Thomas decided to take the project one step further and contacted Poteau Mayor Jeff Shockley who is excited to help the students in anyway possible. 
“We saw how much it saved in just three weeks and now we want to have bins school wide, city wide, county wide or even state wide,” stated Thomas. 
The janitors told the students that there wasn't nearly as much trash when they took the paper out of the equation. 
“The administration has been amazing,” stated Haney. 
The students' research shows 2,000 pounds of paper saves 17 trees, 4,100 Kilowatts of energy, 7,000 gallons of water, 33 yards of land fill space and 60 pounds of air pollutants are eliminated by just putting unwanted paper in one of their recycling bins. 
Haney and Thomas won first place in the local and regional science fairs and placed fourth at state. 
They have taken this project above and beyond what has been expected of them going so far as to contact other schools and Carl Albert State College to try and encourage them to start recycling projects.