Crestwood Elementary School students have collected more than 650 pounds of plastic lids and caps this year that are now being repurposed as a Buddy Bench for the school playground.

At the beginning of the school year, the Crestwood Dad’s Club built a large collection bin with a Plexiglas front, so students and staff could watch their collection grow. Once they had 400 pounds, a student’s family member drove the lids to Green Tree Plastics in Indiana, where the lids were melted down and given new life as a durable outdoor bench. The $200 funding for the bench, which was created through the company’s “ABC” — A Bench for Caps — program, was provided by the Crestwood PTO.

Crestwood’s Buddy Bench was delivered over winter break and installed in time for unseasonably warm temperatures this January — perfect playground weather. Students on the Principal Advisory Committee met and decided the bench should be placed under a large shade tree near the playground.

“The Buddy Bench is a wonderful addition to the Crestwood campus,” Principal Jodi Meese stated in a news release. “It provides a great opportunity for our students to build friendships and show caring toward one another.”

Students continue to bring in lids and caps, with the goal of purchasing a second Buddy Bench for the kindergarten playground, and additional benches for the school grounds.