If keeping the environment Green makes the world better, this team has it down to the bone.
The Green Team collects paper, cardboard and cans from bins set out by teachers and recycles them after school on Tuesdays once a month. The goal of this club is to become more involved with the Earth and the environment by helping out in ways benefiting the community.
Erin Berryhill is a teacher at the high school and also the staff advisor for the Green Team.
“The goal of Green Team is to get kids excited about being outside and just doing fun things outside,” Berryhill said. “In past years we’ve done stuff in the winter going tubing in Cannonsburg.”
Other than recycling, Green Team also goes on fun learning field trips relevant to helping the environment such as going to nature reserves, hiking and planting seeds.
These trips are made possible through partnerships and outreach with these different environmental activists.
“We’ve done field trips where we go to different nature preserves and work on removing invasive species or help with restoration of different natural areas and we partner with different organizations in the area,” Berryhill said.
This club began over a decade ago with different titles and names still running many years later.
“I’ve been at Northview for a while and there were some students who approached me because they wanted to start a club like this 15 years ago,” Berryhill said. “ Back then it was EAC, Environmental Action Club, and I served as the advisor for that for a while.”
A couple of years ago, Sarah Snyder and Nicole Mulheisen took over the club temporarily after Berryhill retired.
“I stepped down when I had kids seven years ago [but this year] there was an open position so I decided I wanted to come back and do it again,” Berryhill said.
Due to introducing other educational experiences, the Green Team brings positivity to its members.
“I think it’s fun [and from] what I’ve heard [through] the feedback I’ve gotten from students who’ve come to meetings or on the trips, it was more fun than what they expected,” Berryhill said.
Snyder is one of the teachers who took over for Berryhill when she decided to prioritize her family. During her four years as advisor, Snyder put her own spin on the club and even changed the name from Environmental Action Club to fit their new agenda.
“She [Berryhill] did a great job at having them go out in nature and do more of nature type things and then I focused more on the recycling part so I called it Green Team,” Snyder said.
Due to this change in priority, the club had a pause in doing outside activities until recently. Co-presidents Nora Brackley and Elliana Raimer are second year captains and bring new bringing the activities of Green Team back.
“Green Team activities started to disappear ‘til Nora Brackley and Elliana Raimer,” Berryhill said. They kinda brought back doing more than just recycling. They went to Ms. Snyder last year they said ‘can we go around [on] Earth Day and talk to the elementaries and make posters’, they started bringing back the concept of Green Team.”
Green Team is also beneficial for students who don’t do other extracurricular activities.
“What’s nice about all grades of high school is you get freshman, [and] sophomores getting with seniors and then just learning new parts of the building,” Snyder said. “It gives them an opportunity to do something after school once a month if not more and then help make the world a little bit better place.
Brackley has been a part of the Green Team since her junior year. She and Raimer have plans for the future that they hope to carry out such as upgrading certain parts of the school and working with other organizations to make the area around them a better environment.
“[When we joined], the club was basically just a recycling team until Elliana Raimer and I helped evolve into more of an actual club instead of just a way to get volunteer hours,” Brackley said. “We are also really persistent on trying to get more can recycling in the school because a lot of cans get thrown away when we could just raise money cause we live in Michigan and can just go and return bottles we wanna do something with that to raise more money for the school or donate it to a free organization.”
Both Brackley and Nora are seniors and will be leaving the Green Team legacy behind.
“I think Green Team has evolved a lot and I’m really proud of how far we’ve come,” Brackley said. “I’m hoping that after Raimer and I graduate this year it will continue to grow the way that it has.”
Junior Riley Snyder is a new member of the Green Team and was pleasantly surprised by all of the unique opportunities.
“I kinda thought it was just gonna be picking up recycling around school but also I found out after joining that it was more than that,” Riley said. “Berryhill has us go to a nature preserve and we kinda just helped out there. It was fun.”
Riley recommends this club to those who are trying to become a bigger part of their community.
“I think it’s a good opportunity to be involved in the school and help out the planet as well so I would definitely recommend it to others,” Riley said.
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