Curtice middle school student up for recycling award

12/30/2013

Eishenhower Middle School student and recycling guru Erek Hansen has another award for his shelf.

The 13-year-old Curtice youth was named a 2013 finalist by the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes, a national awards program that annually recognizes 25 public-spirited youngsters.

In 2009, Erek created the EroErek Recycling Initiative after he began holding recycling drives throughout northwest Ohio to collect used and unwanted blue jeans and shoes to be used as housing insulation. According to his Web site, ecoerek.org, the initiative has collected 18,363 pairs of denim jeans and 11,671 pairs of shoes since 2009.