Environmental club utilizes Earth day to raise money

On April 22, 2016, the world celebrates Earth Day and Sparkman is no exception. The environmental club is hosting an outdoor celebration in the courtyard during third block. The event is open to all students and faculty and all those who purchased a T-shirt from a member of the environmental club will receive a free slice of pizza.

“There [are] going to be games and other informational poster boards [so] that you can learn things more about [specific environmental topics],” senior and president of the environmental club Shreya Pokhrel said. “There’s [also] going to be a board where you can make environmentally based resolutions, hopefully [to] get people more interested in the environment.”

Environmental club sponsor Twyla Maxtion would like every student and teacher to walk away from the event with a tip they can exercise in everyday life.

“Tips could be anything as small as turning the water off when brushing your teeth, making sure you reuse your water bottles instead of buying new water bottles, turning the lights off when you leave the room, or using earth friendly products so that we don’t put toxins in the environment,” Maxtion said. “Even my children know to turn the water off when they brush their teeth. The small things like that will help and build as it goes.”

The money raised from this event will go towards the purchasing and maintaining of a glass recycling receptacle and other environmentally friendly causes. About the size of a typical dumpster, the receptacle will be placed in a location where the whole community can easily access it and properly recycle their glass waste.

“The money we raise will be going towards funding the glass bin,” Pokhrel said. “[Also] having and buying the blue plastic bins [for classroom recycling] because those would be sturdier and we could reuse them a lot more than the cardboard boxes.”

Maxtion and the students that are involved in environmental club believe anyone can help out by just starting with the little things.

“[Earth Day] just really [means] conservation to me,” Maxtion said. “That’s the term that comes into play when I think of Earth Day: conservation and teaching other people to conserve. If we don’t conserve, then we’re going to run out eventually; there’s no doubt about that.”