A group of Frisco ISD freshman were named the high school winners in a national environmental contest by reconstructing landfill waste into musical instruments.
The Second Chance Band team, made up of five Lebanon Trail High School students, won $30,000 in the Lexus Eco Challenge. Lexus and Scholastic invited students in grades 6-12 to come up with functional solutions related to environmental protection issues for the science, technology, engineering, and math competition.
“We truly believe this project will make a lasting social impact because one man’s trash is another child’s future.”
Avery Sinnathamby
Frisco ISD students Wail Aldahni, Abigail Love, Kylie Mannan, Avery Sinnathamby, and Arvind Subramanian built instruments out of unwanted trash to reduce waste in landfills. The group sent more than 75 guitars, flutes, violins, and trumpets to countries worldwide, according to the district.
They were inspired to establish the Second Chance Band after reading up on “The Landfill Harmonic,” a documentary about a music group in Paraguay that uses instruments constructed of landfill trash, according to the release.
“We wanted to go back to the basics with an out-of-the box approach,” Sinnathamby said in the release. “Anyone can replicate the concept. We truly believe this project will make a lasting social impact because one man’s trash is another child’s future.”
The group also made how-to videos to circulate its environmentally friendly idea to teach others how to manufacture the instruments, according to the district.
The $30,000 award will be distributed between student scholarships, Lebanon Trail Spanish teacher and group director, Kimberly Church, and the school.
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