POLAND TOWNSHIP — Amid a strong, blowing April Fools’ Day snowstorm, a group of Poland Lions members at Poland Township Park cut the ribbon on the first recycled park bench received through a new program.

The bench was given to the park after Lions Club members collected enough trash.

The program the Lions worked with is the NexTrex plastic film recycling challenge. A community group, such as the Lions, determines a six-month collection period and begins collecting plastic film and bags. The goal is to reach 500 pounds or 40,500 pieces of film and bags. That’s how much Judy Young, Ohio District 4 Lions first vice governor, said is needed to make one park bench.

The plastic film can come from items such as bread wrappers, food storage bags, produce bags and plastic grocery bags. All of these items are commonly discarded but are recyclable if clean. The NexTrex program goal is to get more recycled materials out of landfills and into a useable source.

For the Poland Lions, collections were taken and bagged, then weighed.

“The Poland Giant Eagle is where we turned in the plastics,” said Dave Rudawsky, Poland Lions president. “They weighed our bags, then they took care of sending them to NexTrex.”

Once the 500 pounds has been reached and sent in, NexTrex sends out a recycled bench to the group that completed the challenge. The first bench was received and placed at township park on Thursday.

“We have another one coming and hope to continue this program each year,” Young noted.

She said each group can get up to two benches per year. In the first plastic collection, Young said the Poland Lions collected enough to get two benches and the second one would be coming soon.

“The second one shipped already, which means we raised over 1,000 pounds of plastic,” Young said.

Now the Poland Lions have to wait until next year to do it again. In the meantime, if another

nonprofit group wanted to get involved, the park could get more than just the two Lions Club donations. Young said a scout troop or other nonprofit entity could apply to the program and earn more benches this year.

“We are looking for a partner to sign up and help us,” Young said.

Meanwhile, daffodils are in bloom throughout the park. Ken Filicky, park board chairman, said the number of daffodils has increased since the program began in 2009.

“In 2009 we planted 350 bulbs,” he said. “We now plant 1,200 bulbs per year with various varieties like King Alfred, Grand Masters, Red Devons, Mount Hood and Pink Pride Carlton.”

He said the plantings are done through volunteers groups that include the Poland girls cross country team, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, township residents, and in particular Mike Luzar. Filicky said the funding for the flowers is provided by the Poland Township trustees and Republic Services.