Cape Coral High School students will roll up their sleeves this month to sell and arrange mulch throughout the city in a program benefitting the school’s Model United Nations team.

Throughout the month of October, coined “Mulch Madness,” the Friends of Seahawks are asking the residents of Cape Coral and Fort Myers to purchase mulch that will benefit extracurricular trips.

Various types of mulch are available for sale including flora, red grade, cypress grade and eucalyptus. According to Larry Davis, fund-raising coordinator at Cape Coral High, the school offers mulch at competitive prices.

“Prices are competitive with everybody except for maybe Wal-Mart,” said Davis.

Students have been fund raising with mulch for the last 10 years, Davis said, although they had to cut back this spring because of the economy and the rising price of gas. Since the entire operation is dependent on trucks and trailers, more of their profits have been used to simply fill the gas tank.

“We are running trailers so it cuts down on profits,” said Davis. “We don’t make a lot of profit but we get a tip usually.”

In the past, he said, mulch had been purchased during the cooler winter months by the real estate industry who used it to prepare new houses for sale. But recently these purchases have slowly decreased because of the struggling housing market.

Certain students are also offering residents their own spreading and arranging services once the mulch is purchased.

“The spreading the children do are in certain clubs that need money,” said Davis. “It’s for any club that needs help with anything.”

Proceeds from the sale go to the Friends of the Seahawks, who later dole out the money to various clubs including the Model United Nations team at Cape Coral High.

Last year the team competed at a United Nations Conference hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston University. Cape High was recognized as the “Best Delegation” and won first place out of other larger school delegations.

During last year’s competition students discussed a number of international topics including the struggle in Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers, trafficking of arms, women in developing worlds and bioethics. They also had the opportunity to form friendships with other students from all over the world.

Bags of mulch from Forestry Resources Inc. range in price from $2 to $3 depending on the type requested, plus a spreading fee of $2 per bag. Delivery in Cape Coral costs a one-time fee of $10 and in Fort Myers it is $15.

For information on the the mulch program or to place an order, contact Larry Davis at 574-6766.