April 21–25 is one of the most important weeks for Environmental Club simply because it is Earth Week.
“During Earth Week there were some lights out days. We recycled the building and cleaned up the school grounds that Friday,” said teacher Dolores Heupel.

Although Earth Week is an important time for the Environmental Club, they have other activities that members will be doing this month.

“Environmental Club was involved in “lights out” to save energy and raise awareness about using resources wisely. The dates were not being published so we make the blackout days more impactful in raising awareness. In addition, we also participated in school ground clean up,” Heupel said.

If you are asking yourself why they only chose to turn off half of the lights for lights out, here is a simple answer.

“We are using half the lights for two reasons: to model how simple it is to reduce energy use which can benefit not only the school because it saves on energy costs, but the reduction in lights saves on energy production,” Heupel said.

The club was also involved in a clean-up day after school on Friday, April 25.

“Ground clean-up day is when students in Environmental Club and students who volunteer come together to clean up around the school. If you are in Environmental Club and chose to participate in this event you can get extra credit,” said junior Jennifer Shin.

There are also many things you can do even if one is not involved in Earth Week.

“Some simple things you can do are switching to CFL or LED light bulbs, using recyclable batteries and recycling the old batteries at special collection events advertised by SWALCO, turning off the water when brushing your teeth or lathering up in the shower, hanging laundry out to dry if possible, using re-usable bags for grocery shopping, and using refillable water bottles that you clean rather than plastic bottles,” Heupel said.

Though doing things to go green during Earth Week is nice, it is easy and simple to help the environment on a regular basis. There are many ways to be Earth friendly.

“My advice would be to start small and recycle,” said senior Brandon Schmidt.