LEBANON — After a visit to the Cincinnati Zoo, Alaina Spencer decided she could help the Save the Gorillas campaign.

The 6-year-old drew a picture and wrote a letter to her principal, Jean Hartman at Waynesville Elementary School, asking her to “set up a recycling program in the office” for cell phones.

“Cell phones have a mineral that miners have to dig for. The mine is in the gorilla’s habitat and the miners have to cut down gorilla’s homes,” wrote Alaina, daughter of Holli and Blaine Spencer.

Alaina’s letter led to some improvised lessons in her second grade class and launched a district-wide effort to collect old cell phones.

Alaina and her classmates created fact sheets about mountain gorillas in Eastern Congo, where the mineral coltan is heavily mined to be used for cell phone batteries.

Alaina said she has learned that gorillas like to eat plants, typically 40 pounds a day; they like to take naps; their babies can weigh 4 to 5 pounds; and they can grow to weigh more than 400 pounds.

Alaina said recycling cell phones is important because that means the gorillas won’t have to move.

“If they have to move, they might get cold and die. They might not get the plants they need,” she said.

Her teacher, Amanda Johnson, said the initiative provided an opportunity for the students to do some research about gorillas and has given them a “real world application” for classroom lessons.

“The kids have been extremely engaged because they’ve taken ownership of the project. It’s been a lot of fun,” Johnson said.

Recycling cell phones can not only lessen the impact of mining on gorillas and their habitat, it can keep the local environment clean.

Cell phones contain other hazardous metals that are harmful to people’s health, including antimony, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, copper and lead, according to the Cincinnati Zoo’s website.

For more information about how you can help, send an e-mail to savingspecies@cincinnatizoo.org.

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4542 or rwilson@coxohio.com.