Our Lady of the Hamptons Wins Recycling Contest

With seven schools participating in Southampton Town's "Plastic Bag Challenge," Our Lady of the Hamptons didn't just win — the Catholic school collected more bags than the six other schools combined.

For their efforts, Our Lady of the Hamptons second grade students on Tuesday were each presented with a reusable shopping bag from filled with goodies, and the school received a bench made out of recycled plastic bags from the Trex company.

The challenge was part of Southampton Town's "" campaign, which aims to encourage consumers to bring reusable bags when they go shopping, and to recycle the plastic bags they do use.

Town Councilwoman Christine Scalera, Councilman Chris Nuzzi, and members of the town’s Plastic Bag Education Task Force were on-hand Tuesday to recognize the students, who collected nearly 17,000 bags during the month of April.

' second grade class spearheaded the project, "but everybody else was invited to help them," said Principal Sister Kathy Schleuter.

Sister Kathy said the students collected everything from shopping bags to dry cleaning bags and the shrinkwrap from winterized boats.

Our Lady of the Hamptons also received a Trex bird house, as did all other schools that participated.

Both the bench and birdhouse are in a newly put together garden space at Our Lady of the Hamptons. Sister Kathy said the school's former garden space was lost recently when the school , which is currently under construction, so the bench and birdhouse made for a great replacement.