SPANISH FORT, Ala. — Mackenize Davidson cracked the code.

Going green equals red rewards.

Davidson, a senior at Spanish Fort High School, has been selected as the school’s scholarship finalist for the annual Superintendents’ Red Ribbon Leadership Awards program, honoring student leaders from 135 public, private and parochial schools across Baldwin and Mobile counties.

Davidson is asking local residents to drop off any recyclable items at Spanish Fort Ball Park between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday, with 100 percent of the proceeds from the community-service project benefiting the four schools in the local feeder pattern.

“I plan on turning in the recyclables, and the proceeds will go directly back to Spanish Fort High School, Spanish Fort Middle School, Spanish Fort Elementary School and Rockwell Elementary School,” Davidson said.

Donors participating in the Community Recycling Day are asked to sign in upon arrival, indicating which school they represent. The school receiving the highest percentage of supporters will receive the largest cut of the proceeds.

The school receiving the second-highest percentage of supporters will receive the second-largest percentage of the cut, and so on, Davidson said.

She also said her team of students will then sort and categorize the donations for more efficient turnaround.

The annual Red Ribbon scholarship program is sponsored by the Drug Education Council Inc. and honors one student from each school represented each January for leading substance abuse prevention and community service activities throughout the fall months.

Each year, Red Ribbon Week is celebrated in schools nationwide to promote “healthy decision-making and a drug-free lifestyle among America’s schoolchildren.”

Although the Drug Education Council is based in Mobile, the agency serves seven counties in southwest Alabama. The council created the Superintendents’ Red Ribbon Leadership Awards program in 2000 not only to recognize excellence on both sides of the bay but as a way to “promote positive character and community service.”

The scholarship program was created in 2005, however, to acknowledge participating high school seniors “whose service projects have made the greatest impact on their school and community.”

To date, the program has distributed $24,000 to area students, but it was not immediately clear how much will be dispersed during the annual Superintendents’ Red Ribbon Leadership Awards Dinner, slated for 6 p.m. Jan. 11 at the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center.

The council was actually founded as a rehabilitation organization in 1967 as the Southwest Alabama Council on Alcoholism. By 1981, however, the Salvation Army had assumed the agency’s rehabilitation services as the council broadened its mission to address “the growing problem of drug addiction in our community.”

Five years later, the council changed its name to reflect its new focus, and today the United Way agency provides in-school and community-based drug education programs as well as counseling and referral services year-round.

For more information call 251-478-7855 or visit www.drugeducation.org.