Last year, the CHS National Honor Society (NHS) received the Carmel Green Teen grant. This grant then motivated NHS members to promote recycling at CHS-sponsored events. Such activities include providing recycling bins, as well as sharing information about recycling with others.

Sarah Griffin, NHS secretary and senior, said the grant is beneficial because NHS members seek to educate other students about recycling and the effects it has on the environment.

She said, “It’s great that (NHS members) are doing this because we can help the environment out and get more people recycling.

“We want to get more people recycling because if people see all (this) stuff about it, then they’re more likely to (recycle) at home or in other situations. Also, at events, there’s not really (currently) an opportunity to recycle a Coke bottle or whatever you have. Then, in this way, we’re able to have recycling instead of people just throwing it away and having it going straight to the landfill.”

According to NHS sponsor Michele Satchwell, this grant is essential in encouraging students, as well as the community, to adopt green practices.

Satchwell said, “I think (the Carmel Green Teen grant) is a wonderful grant. I think Carmel High School should be more involved in recycling, and having National Honor Society show the way is a very appropriate role for our club.”

Griffin said she agrees with Satchwell and added NHS members will host a variety of stations to collect
recyclable materials at future events.

“It will be like stations where people can recycle, and we will also have (members) standing there to give people information. So NHS members can get hours from that, so it’s a great opportunity to both help the environment and get group hours,” Griffin said.

Satchwell said the grant was introduced by John Chen ‘15, former president of NHS, after he wrote and submitted a grant proposal to Carmel Green Teen. Carmel Green Teen’s goal is to work with schools in order to implement sustainable and eco-friendly practices.

She said, “(Chen) wrote the grant because he felt like he would leave a legacy for future NHS members to keep going in terms of environmentalism and in terms of community service for recycling.”