Saving the Environment
with Small Acts
By Derek Chen
For many years now, multiple projects have been completed by members of the Climate Club. The club has initiated many projects to help the environment, such as making a pollinator garden during the 2023-2024 school year, to help the bees in our environment pollinate. They continue to manage the garden with pride, through 8th grader Aaron Weed comments, “I don’t like how we don’t go outside in the winter, to work on the pollinator garden.”
What are pollinator gardens?
Pollinator gardens are a patch of seed plants that allow many different insects to pollinate, e.g. bees, butterflies, ants, ect.. With the pollen that the insects collect, many of them produce a sweet liquid, known as honey. Wasps and bees use this honey to survive winters, where they can’t go outside to scavenge for pollen to consume. Make your own pollinator garden today! Use this link: https://xerces.org/sites/default/files/2018-05/15-020_02_XercesSoc_Establishing-Pollinator-Meadows-from-Seed_web.pdf
The Tiffin Project:
Have you noticed any restaurants posting signs about tiffins? Well it might be because of the Climate Club. During the 2024-2025 school year they have started a project, in hopes of increasing the use of reusable takeout containers called tiffins in the Town of New Paltz. The Climate Club partnered with a woman from the Ulster Resource Recovery Agency named Holly. With Holly, they took a trip down Main Street and asked restaurants to put up signs that inform customers about the restaurants allowing tiffins.
Food Vibes Table*:
Do you ever feel hungry for a snack? Well, almost everyone knows that they could go to the nurses office to grab a quick snack. This is all thanks to the Climate Club. During the 2024-2025 school year, they have established this table in the cafeteria. How it works is that you put any fruit that you don’t want onto the table, if you’re feeling full. If you’re feeling hungry though, you can grab a fruit to enjoy. At the end of the lunch period, a few Climate Club volunteers then bring the fruit to the nurses office for more people to enjoy. Since the new school year, the Food Vibes table has obtained a fridge donated by NPUT (New Paltz United Teachers). This fridge allows the Climate Club to save milks, juices, etc.
Recycling:
During this school year, the Climate Club has taken an interest in recycling. They have created signs to put up next to recycling bins in every room of the school! The Climate Club would like to inform you that you should read these signs and that everyone should recycle. Furthermore, they also would like to tell you that you shouldn’t put food waste in the cafeteria recycling bins. To stop the occurrence of this happening, the Climate Club has made a flap over the recycling bin to remind people to only put recyclables in the bin.
Why were they founded?
The Climate Club was founded in hopes of helping the environment. They have started many projects that help our local environment, reducing trash build-up, all the way to helping the animals in the area. When asking member Aaron Weed what he likes about Climate Club, he answered, “I like how in Climate Club we try to make a change in our community... one step at a time, all steps at a time. We climate Clubians want to make a difference in our community.”
*At the time this article was written, the food table was functioning. We all hope it will be back and better soon!
