Members of the GAC listen to president Ashlyn Walker speak during a meeting. The club has been advocating for the implementation of solar panels since the beginning of the school year.

Every year, the Green Action Club (GAC) holds a Holiday Lights Drive, and sets up bins at several different locations around this school to encourage community members to donate old holiday lights they no longer use. GAC sponsor Carey Anderson said recycling holiday lights wasn’t something many people considered, but it had many positive environmental impacts.

“There are four doors that have the holiday lights (donation bins), so anybody from all over the community that have lights that do not work any longer (can donate),” Anderson said. “It’s a drive that we do, so we ask (community members) to not throw (their lights) in the trash, because 85 to 90% of those strands can be recycled.”

Ella Lipnik, GAC co-president and senior, said the drive would last from Nov. 20 to Jan. 12.

Lipnik also said a current main focus of the club was applying for a grant that would allow solar panels to be installed at this school.

“We’re still mainly working on getting solar panels,” she said. “There’s this amazing opportunity provided by the Carmel Education Foundation (called) the Good Idea Award grants, and we’re in the process of researching solar, how we can get that viably at the school, and then we’ll start our application process.”