Riley Stramel, an eighth grader at McCord Junior High in Sylvania, has come up with a project that’s worth its weight in gold—specifically black gold, which is what many call organic composting.
Thanks to him, McCord students, faculty and staff separate leftover food and paper products from general trash. The organic waste goes into a special container that’s picked up weekly by a composting service, GoZERO.
“It’s a way to help our community reduce our carbon footprint,” Stramel said, and reduces the amount of waste that goes into landfills.
The initiative began in early October, after the students heard from a Keep Toledo Lucas County Beautiful representative about what organic composting is and did a walk-through of how to separate the “black gold” from landfill trash.
School Principal Susie Felver said the students bought into the project, recognizing its worth “and are willing to take the couple extra seconds to sort it. The kids are doing an awesome job. The lesson is that it’s really not hard to be a little more mindful of our impact on the earth.”
Stramel’s project was the winner from last academic year in the third-annual student competition called Amazing Shake. McCord seventh graders research their own projects as a way to learn essential communications skills. “They learn how to call and make appointments, do interviews, read a cue card, pick an outfit for an interview,” Felver said. “They practice these skills that employers want them to have.” She said about 70 volunteers from the Sylvania community visit the school throughout the year to work with the students.
Felver said the students receive scores based on their performance, narrowing the field to 25, who then continue with off-site interviews, tours, and team building. The top 10 then are paired with a teacher and have a month to research and propose a service project that the school can do the following year.
As a seventh-grader, Stramel’s composting project won. “He researched it well,” Felver said. “He’s really great at public speaking—it’s fun to watch him.”
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Over the summer he had to secure funding for the compost-pickup service, GoZERO. With his principal, Stramel attended a Rotary Club of Sylvania meeting, making a pitch for financial support. She said the next day Stramel got a call saying the club, including the Taylor Automotive Family, would back his plan.
GoZERO will pick up the gathered compost—not only from the students’ lunch, but the teachers’ lounge and the cafeteria staff – weekly.
His parents are naturally proud and speak of his maturity. His mother, Carin Stramel, said over the years she’s included Riley in the community projects in which she’s participated. “I may have helped him form the initial idea,” she said, “but he took it and ran with it. He did all the work. He’s a self-starter.”
His father, Joe Stramel, said Riley’s been passionate about helping the community, and is comfortable talking with adults. “He’s doing great things. He’s got his head on his shoulders just right.”
His intent is for the composting to continue at McCord beyond when he leaves next year for Northview High School. “I’m also hoping to roll out this composting project into other schools.”
Felver added, “The cool part is we have the chance to be the ‘guinea pigs’ for such a forward-thinking, progressive program to help our environment. We’re hoping that as we find success and the word will spread, this can spread to other buildings.”
As for his future, Stramel plans to be a defense lawyer in family or criminal law, and attend Indiana University, Notre Dame, or the University of Florida as an undergraduate, then attend UCLA or the University of Michigan for law school.
“Riley’s a fantastic young man,” Felver said. “He’s a great representative of our school and our student body.”
