(This is an archive story, please refer to the byline for journalist’s name)
By Kalee Moran
Every day someone sees a piece of trash on the floor or at the side of the road. Instead of picking it up they leave it there, and more and more piles on. Then those same people complain that our earth is filthy and that someone should clean up the mess, however, solving this problem can all start with you.
The E&E (Environment and Energy) group is a committee in the student council. There are about 12 students involved and all promote green and saving energy. They get together every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday to talk about ways to help the school be renewable. The two heads of the committee are sophomore, Grey Caston and senior, Arianna Mondragon.
“The reason I choose to be in the Energy and Environment committee is that I am extremely passionate about helping our planet since global warming is a huge issue we are dealing with,” Mondragon said.
Mondragon believes that the school has had a problem with littering. Around the school, there are bottles, pieces of trash, and even food inside and outside of school. Because she sees this is a big issue, she wants to make a change and help the school improve on having a clean campus.
“In the classroom, me and fellow head committee Gray Caston get together with everyone and we share ideas we would like to for school and even outside of school,” Mondragon said. “For example, we like to do monthly campus cleanups to ensure our school still looks beautiful.”
The committee has hosted two campus clean-ups so far this year. Student council members arrived early Saturday morning and walked around the entire campus and football field to clean up most of the trash that was left behind. Some of the members even turned the campus cleanup into a competition. The winner was going to be the group that collected the most trash.
“One of my biggest ideas that I brought up was selling reusable metal straws during the lunches, in order to raise money to put recycling bins throughout the school, and so far it has been a great success,” E&E member Carson Morrill said.
The E&E has also hosted one of their most popular fundraisers which were selling metal straws. Members wanted to make a change from wasting plastic straws to using reusable metal ones. They were pretty successful in the first week of selling them. The straws came in different forms and colors.
“I think it is important to know that we are not just tree-huggers trying to ban all plastic in the school, although that would be a great end goal,” Morrill said. “We are trying to make a real difference in the community and spread our message of making the world greener.”
These students are incredibly determined to raise awareness about saving energy and having a clean campus. It is not just about doing it because they have to. The members do not feel forced at all. They chose to be part of this committee and they truly desire to have a cleaner world and a healthy environment.
“We believe the reason we don’t get much recognition is that the students at our school don’t really know what student council specifically has to offer and how much we actually do to create a clean and safe environment in our school,” Mondragon said.
Many of the students outside of the student council are not involved with school activities. Most of the time they ignore the announcements and mute some of the events that the committee hosts.
“I feel like students ignore it for the sole purpose of their mindset being ‘it’s not mine why should I pick it u,’” senior Morgan Powell said. “The school should recognize this committee because they’re trying to clean up the mess on the earth that most people wouldn’t want to study.”
The E&E committee’s main purpose is to help others be involved in making a change with the school’s environment.
“One of the biggest things we can do to improve our committee is by coming up with more ideas frequently and staying committed to our ideas in order to execute them,” Caston said.
Many can say that these students are diligent in changing the aspect of having a clean campus. More people should know about them and participate in the events they host. Not only that, students outside of the student council can suggest ideas on how to improve the environment as well.