Over 40 students took to the front lawn on Monday, Sept. 16th, eager for the first meeting of CHS’s Ecology Club. Over 30 students, new and returning members alike, joined together to learn more about the club itself, goals and upcoming events.
The meeting was led by Jasper Forgey, senior and long time veteran of the Ecology Club. Topics such as the goals of the club for the year were discussed throughout the meeting. Goals ranged from improving recycling and compost throughout the school, to building an aquaponics system that raises salmon with a special type of farming practice called hydroponics.
Forgey led activities for members to bond and get to know each other, which led to a fun yet competitive game of “poison dart frog.” Forgey could already sense the positive and welcoming environment that was forming within the group.
“It’s such a good group of people, and I’m excited to meet the new people,” Forgey said. “It’s really cool to be in the community of people who are interested in sort of the same thing and have similar mindsets as I do.”
The Ecology Club has been a long-standing staple throughout CHS, with ample amounts of new members joining each year. New member, sophomore Lola Yribar, is glad that she joined the club, and is looking forward to what the year will bring.
“I joined Ecology Club because I love Courtney Kiley; a lot of my friends are in it, and it just seems like a really fun club,” Yribar said. “I’m really excited to be in it this year.”
Senior Sam Austin, a longtime member of the club and curator of fun, shared his goals and hopes for not only himself but the club as a whole.
“I want to try and get us recycling as a school, because we don’t actually put the recyclables in the recycling right now,” Austin said. “I want to make sure that we really keep our composting program strong and I also want to make sure that I don’t kill all the fish this year.”
Courtney Kiley, the club’s mentor and supervisor, plays a very active role in helping to educate the club’s members on the subject of ecology. Every year the club helps to raise over 150 salmon, who are then released back into streams and rivers in Michigan. This practice is one of the ways that the club helps protect natural resources and gives back to the environment.
The Ecology Club has done tremendous amounts of work throughout the school over the years, and they hope that their work will continue for years to come. Austin recognizes the need for a change in our community in the ways in which we treat our environment, and hopes that this widespread change can start within The Ecology Club.
“I am here in Ecology Club because we really make a difference in how our school sort of operates, and in the actual world itself,” Austin said. “If you can implement changes in Ecology Club, those changes can outlive you when you’re gone.”
Both Austin and Forgey encourage everyone to join The Ecology Club. They meet on Monday’s during lunch in room 318.
