Written by Jen Halstead, Sanford Environmental Club President, Sanford, Maine. Pictured here (on right) with club-mate, Chelsea Rodrigue, and faculty advisor, Beth Marass.

As I waited for my mom to pick me up from school one day freshmen year, I saw a group of kids roll by with a big cart topped with recycling bins filled to the brim with paper. Knowing one of them, I asked what in the world they were doing; he told me that they were heading the recycling program they had brought back to Sanford High School.

It was a small attempt to make our school a little more eco-friendly, but it has worked quite well.

Two years later, I decided to join the Environmental Club, headed by my former biology teacher. With no elected president, someone needed to step up, so I dedicated my time to being the un-official president. Knowing that small steps I had taken and continue to take, had lessened my impact on the environment a great amount, I realized that if we could get 30 percent of our school to think the same way, Sanford High would be a lot more eco-friendly. This knowledge has fueled our projects over the past two years, and the outcome of each project adds to our motivation.

Competing in the ACE Race was a great experience for our team. We learned about other ways to change our school and lessen our overall impact from other teams, and we were able to share our ideas, like Green Week. Knowing that we had a deadline and an amazing prize if we won, we implemented many projects over the course of the race and made sure we vamped them up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVz0nK9JTKM

Throughout this competition, we bonded as a team and grew close as we all worked hard on projects, including Green Week and our DOT project.

We also realized that our actions were having an impact on our school. During the Green Week that took place during the ACE Race, there was more participation by the student body in a large activity like this than ever, and the competition among advisories (aka: homerooms) was fierce. This experience has motivated our team to work even harder than we have in years past to make sure that we really do reach the students and faculty of our school. Along with this, we continue to make sure our projects really do evolve and become even bigger and better than the last.

Projects we are currently working on include a vamped up version of our DOT project, using murals to portray how easy it can be to do just one thing. Along with this, we will soon begin to plan our second Green Week of this school year, making sure we build on strategies that work well and continue to get our major points across.

Our biggest project right now is the Green Fashion Show we are planning for the Spring. Students, clubs, and faculty will be competing for prizes. Not only are we making this fun for our school, we are also educating them about our impact on Earth through how much we waste each day and what damage it’s really doing.

It all started for me with that big recycling cart, and I hope that our team’s actions continue to impact people in the same way.