NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — More than a dozen of the city's youngest artists and environmentalists Wednesday celebrated their contribution to making the world a better place.

 

Aaron Willis' class at Child Care of the Berkshires showed off a series of four recycling bins adorned by original art the youngsters created to encourage people to use the receptacles in the Noel Field complex that abuts the State Street early care and education program.

 

"Back in March, I brought to the kids this project," Willis said during the unveiling ceremony. "I asked the kids: What do they think they can do at their age to help our community? … We had a nice discussion at the front of the school about things they see all the time, and very quickly, it was 'Oh, we have trash.'

 

"And they all said, I think we can do something with recycling and picking up trash. We brainstormed for a while and made lists as groups and came up with, 'Let's get some recycling bins out here.' Because we have a lot of garbage bins, and recycling bins were kind of limited. So they came up with the great idea to get some recycling bins."

 

Willis secured grant funding from the Massachusetts Service Alliance and Youth Service America to procure the bins, and the children worked on the colorful messages with pictures of a greener world and messages ranging from simply "Please Recycle in Bin" to "Littering is Wrong."

 

Mayor Jennifer Macksey visited the children to admire their work, chatted with them about their artistic endeavors and thanked them for helping the city.

 

"I'm so impressed by all of your messaging and all of your work and how important you know it is to recycle," Macksey said. "That's awesome. I think you did a great job, an excellent job.

 

"Do you think you could do some more for me?"

 

Macksey was joined by North Adams Parks and Recreation foreman and coordinator Bob Lemaire.

 

"He maintains all the fields and all the parks, and he really appreciates this, too, because we're tired of picking up bottles and cans that could be recycled," Macksey told the children.

 

One of the kids piped up and reminded the mayor that, "It's fun to pick up."

 

"It's fun to pick up, but when you do it every single day it becomes difficult," Macksey said. "Thank you so much for your work, and I'm so impressed by all your posters, all the messaging. It's so important."

 

After talking about their bins, the CCB students got down to the business of placing them on the field — one near the Joe Wolfe Field baseball diamond, one near the basketball courts, one at the playground and one at the skate park.

 

They also did a trash pickup in the area immediately around the Haskins Center. They protected their hands with colorful gloves purchased for the occasion and got some help from family members who turned out for the occasion.

 

"My kiddo was very excited they were having this and adamant that I come down," said Angela Bunting-Briggs, whose son Riley, 7, was one of the artists.

 

Cindy Duplisea said her grandson Jared, 8, also has been energized by the project.

 

"We have to do our part, we have to recycle — that's all I hear," Duplisea said with a smile.