SOUTH POINT — Educating the public about the environment, recycling, and energy conservation is an important part of Sam’s Club’s nationwide initiative.

On Tuesday, second-graders from South Point Elementary came to the local store to learn more about the program.

“The kids are learning more about recycling, waste reduction, and the benefits of water,” said Sam’s spokeswoman Suzanne Howard. “First we started with teaching the associates here, and now we’re going out into the community and talking to the youth.

We like to talk to these young ones because you can see how enthusiastic they are.

If we start teaching them now, hopefully there will

be a beautiful earth for them in future years.”

The children had already started learning about recycling in their classes.

“In our reading series one of the sections deals with the secret life of trees.

It tells more than what children generally know about trees, about how important they are,” said second grade teacher Kim Whitman.

“When I saw the article about Sam’s Club’s recycling program, I hoped we could get involved and raise awareness so the kids would recycle.”

Some people might think second grade is too young to start saving the planet, but Whitman says that’s just not so.

“I think kids are more easily influenced at this age for good things like

this. They can take causes and be very motivated and focused on the right thing to do. They are really into fairness.”

As the students busily colored pictures of trees, they were more than happy to share what they were learning.

“We need to recycle so we don’t waste so (many) trees,” said Nathan Patterson. “They give out oxygen and we need it to live.”

The students also got a demonstration about recycling, energy conservation in the home, and the benefits of clean water.

Barbara Gilbert from the Cabell County Library

also read some books on the subject.

“I sort of stretched it a little bit.” Gilbert confessed. “I did Five Dog Night by Chris Lowe because it talks about rather than using blankets at night he slept with one dog one night when it was warm and the colder it got, the more dogs got in the bed.

A Tree Named Steve talked about the importance of how trees can be our friends and provide more than just shelter.”

The students also played some games just for fun, which seemed to leave a big impression.

“It was really fun to do the beanie bag boogie!” said 7-year-old Mackenzie Saunders.

But the important message was not lost.

“We learned that it’s a really good thing to recycle because if you don’t recycle, littering

isn’t good for the nature,” she said.