TAVARES — Twenty students of Tavares High School, located at 603 N. New Hampshire Ave., will receive a recycled computer Thursday, April 26, at 1 p.m. as a reward for promoting the importance of protecting the environment to fellow classmates and the community.

Officials from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection will visit the school along with representatives from Creative Recycling and the Lake County Department of Environmental Services for the presentation.

The students of Tavares High School Service Learning Class, taught by Coranelle Glass, Service Learning Site Coordinator, participated in a semester-long project hosted by the Lake County Department of Environmental Services. The primary goals of the project were to: familiarize the students with the system of waste disposal in Lake County; to help them identify individual behaviors that prevent proper waste disposal; to heighten their awareness about the importance of protecting and taking care of the environment; and to inspire students to have a positive effect on altering behaviors in their immediate community.

Discussions, classroom activities and a field trip introduced them to the concept of waste disposal and recovery in Lake County. A small group of the class attended a Lake County Board of County Commissioners Board meeting and successfully requested that the Board declare Nov. 11, 2006, as the eighth annual Lake County Recycles Day.

The culminating activity required the students to go into their immediate communities and educate other residents and students and to enter a state and national contest that required them to gather signed recycle commitment pledge cards. The statewide contest is rewarding the Tavares High class with a recycled computer for collecting the greatest number of recycling pledge cards.

Members of the winning Tavares class are Justina Bennett, Kristin Custer, Courtney Sneed, Brad Kauper, Whitney Worfel, Ferran Gayles, Brittany Abston, Osmara Sanchez, Samara Lozano, Ariana Leal, Mary Catherine Witsman, Ivan Junco, Stephanie Guogas, Montana Sams, Michelle Koneski, Michael Torro, Eva Deege, Kelly Holmes, Sunny Patel and Rebecca Montalvo.

The media is invited to this presentation. For more information, call Sharon Tatum, Public Education Specialist, at (352) 343-3776.