Texas Exes, At-Risk Youth, And The Environment Score With Gameday Recycling
Gameday at the Alumni Center is huge, so recycling thousands upon thousands of plastic bottles and aluminum cans is a huge job. This year, the Texas Exes are managing it in a way that benefits scholarships, the environment, and some hardworking young people.
Catering by Rosemary, the Association’s in-house catering group, has employed students from American YouthWorks this season to help sort through the massive numbers of cans and bottles fans go through.
In the first two games of the season alone, some 14,838 beer and soda cans and up to 4,426 water bottles (except the ones fans kept as souvenirs) were recycled.
Whether the containers are thrown in recycling bins or mistakenly tossed in the trash, the students make it their business to find every last one.
An Austin nonprofit, American YouthWorks aims to help at-risk youth through education, service, and green jobs training. It operates a charter high school, GED program, and programs like Green Energy Corps and Environmental Corps.
For each game, 20 of its students are hired to sort through the beer and soda cans and Tower-shaped bottles of H2Orange water.
Not only do the youth earn their own wages, but also the school keeps the money earned from recycling. For the two games in September, that came to a tidy $1,100.
“This revealed itself to be the best scenario possible, where out of the task of recycling, we’re doing something that will pay dividends long-term,” Catering by Rosemary general manager Neil Fuselier says.
Plus, Fuselier says, the students were inspired by The University of Texas and the hoopla surrounding it. “Some of the young people,” he says, “had never been on a college campus before, and they felt excited to be part of the gameday atmosphere.”
Photo by Camille Claudio/The Alcalde
Share this article
3 Comments