By Trinity Kong ’24
Wyoming Seminary’s Environmental Club held yet another Earth Week beginning Monday, April 17th until Earth Day, Saturday, April 22. Working hard throughout the winter and spring terms, the members of the Environmental Club hosted a variety of exciting activities and events during the week. Their goal was to promote sustainability and educate on environmental issues while encouraging all of Wyoming Seminary to join their efforts and do their part to combat climate change.
Starting off the week with Meatless Monday and poster-making, the Environmental Club, with the help of Metz Food Service, provided plant-based lunch options and held a poster-making party after classes. Eating plant-based is beneficial for the planet as it can severely decrease the number of greenhouse gases produced and the amount of habitat and biodiversity loss. The poster-making party allowed members of the Sem community to voice their concerns about climate change in writing, which would then be posted on the gates around campus to stimulate the local community to think about these issues.
On Tuesday, the Environmental Club distributed wildflower seeds native to the area to promote planting flowers that are native to the area but will also increase the area’s biodiversity.
Next up, on Wednesday, an Educational Walk for Water was led by Michele Schasberger to Toby’s Creek. Students who attended were taught about the importance of walk quality and shown how to test certain aspects of water quality.
Members of the Environmental Club organized a clothing donation and a trip to the local Salvation Army for Thursday of Earth Week. Buying clothes secondhand is very beneficial for the environment because making new clothes requires large amounts of water, pollutes water sources, and releases large quantities of greenhouse gases.
The club ended the school week with a dress-down day and a day of no plastic use. The dress-down day proceeds went towards Plastic Oceans International, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to end plastic pollution and promote sustainable living. And in conjunction with Metz Food Service and Caribou Coffee, the Environmental Club encouraged all of Sem to stop using plastic just for one day, offering incentives such as one dollar off of a purchase at Caribou Coffee for bringing a reusable cup. Plastic pollution is detrimental to the environment, the animals around us, and even human beings.
Finally, on Saturday, the club spent Earth Day with a Pollinator Garden Activity: planting succulents in pots reused from past ceramics classes. Along with the activity, a beekeeper came to speak to attendees about the importance of pollinators to the environment.
Taking all the amazing activities and initiatives into account, Earth Week 2023 was a success, and Environmental Club will continue to work to improve on Wyoming Seminary’s actions to combat climate change!