Ryan Zhang

Carey Anderson, Green Action Club (GAC) sponsor, looks at Carmel Parks and Recreation volunteering opportunities in Room F104. She said because Earth Day and Arbor Day are approaching, there are more community events for club members to participate in.

The Green Action Club (GAC) will meet on March 21 in the freshman large group instruction (LGI) room located in Room H121 to plan for upcoming community volunteering and education opportunities.

According to Ella Lipnik, GAC co-leader, and junior, at this meeting, club members will look at upcoming volunteering events. She said there are many opportunities with Carmel Clay Parks and Recreation in the upcoming weeks in light of Earth Day and Arbor Day.

“So there’s Hounds and Honeysuckles, which is an event where we can go to the (Central) Dog Park, and no dogs are allowed there because we’re trying to remove honeysuckles from the dog park and just invasive species from that area,” she said.

Lipnik said CHS’s composting program, an initiative the GAC has pushed for since the start of the school year, is now successfully up and running.

“So we’re really excited to announce that we’re finally starting up composting,” she said. “We’ve been working on this initiative for a very long time and we have it implemented in main cafeteria. (The cafeteria staff) pretty much just dispose of food prep waste in a composting bin, then we’re gonna get that recycled.”

GAC sponsor Carey Anderson said club members want to use this new composting program to teach students about its importance.

“We’re trying to promote composting throughout the school,” she said. “We are working on approaching department heads and seeing which classes would like to come visit the cafeteria to see composting in action and then possibly allowing that student to understand how to do it at home.”

Lipnik agreed with Anderson and said members will work on creating educational presentations for classes related to composting.

“We’re going to make our slideshow about educational opportunities and how to just compost at home so we can get lots of student involvement there,” she said.

Lipnik said at this meeting, members will also create posters in light of Women’s History Month.

“Because it’s Women’s History Month, we’re going to have some posters regarding some very prevalent females in the climate action community,” she said. “We really want to get that message spread.”

Lipnik said the GAC is still welcoming new members and also beginning its search for new club leaders.

“We’re looking for somebody who’s very social and just loves collaboration, very passionate about climate action initiatives. Somebody who’s confident in public speaking, because we do a lot of political advocacy work, and just talking with older figures,” she said. “Also, we do a lot of work behind the scenes of GAC, so they’d have to be ready to kind of put that time aside to focus on GAC as well.”