By Jim Beers, Contributing Writer
CHESTER—The Chester High School Environmental Club, “The Green Team”, recently conducted a project to help create awareness about how polluted our oceans have become. The project included a 3-week fundraiser that raised $345.91 to help clean up the ocean.
CHS Science teacher Carolyn Kish organized the Environmental Club at CHS during the 2018-19 school year. That group of 21 members created the name, “Green Team” for the club.
In 2020 fellow science teacher Evelyn Hankins teamed-up with Kish to Co-Sponsor the club. At the beginning of this 2021-22 school year, Hankins became the “Green Team” sponsor.
When the club was formed in 2018-19 Hankins taught Biology I, Biology II, and Physical Science. Kish taught AP Chemistry, Chemistry, Environmental Science, and Astronomy. Thus the interest in the environment and helping make the earth a better place to live.
Kish said, “I have been pleasantly surprised that there has been a lot of interest in the club and students are actually excited about both it and the environment.”
This semester Hankins expressed that she would like the “Green Team” to conduct some type of project related to helping the environment. She asked for a volunteer to lead the project and senior, Anna Childs rose to the occasion and volunteered to be chair-person of the activity.
Chester High School senior, Anna Childs, poses with a check that the CHS Environmental Club, “Green Team” raised to help clean up our oceans. Childs was the organizer of the fundraiser. The fundraiser conducted was a challenge to all classes at CHS to see who could collect the most money. The individual class that raised the most money was Dwight Lochhead’s Pre-Calculus Class which collected $122.43. For their efforts the class received an ice cream party. School-wide students and staff raised a total of $345.91. The non-profit environmental group, “Team Seas” was the recipient of the donation and for every dollar donated, the group cleans one pound of trash from the ocean. Jim Beers Photo
Childs came up with the idea to do something to help clean up the oceans. She researched the topic and found a non-profit organization, “Team Seas” that dealt with the subject of cleaning up the oceans.
It was discovered that “Team Seas” conducts many clean-up activities that resulted in the removal of trash from the oceans. “Team Seas” accepts financial donations which allow for one pound of trash to be removed from the ocean for each dollar donated.
Childs led the “Green Team” in a school-wide fundraising effort so that Chester High School could make a donation to “Team Seas” clean up the oceans.
The fundraiser was a three-week effort in which the “Green Team” challenged each class to compete in attempting to collect the most money via student and staff donations. In addition to helping clean the oceans, students were encouraged to collect the MOST MONEY in order to win an ice cream party for their entire class.
After the three-week period ended, all donations were collected and summarized. The winner of the FREE ice cream party was Dwight Lochhead’s 6th Hour Pre-Calculus Class. For their great efforts, of collecting a total of $122.43, Mr. Lochhead’s class won the delicious ice cream party.
In addition to winning an ice cream party, Lochhead’s class more importantly allowed “Team Seas” to remove 122 pounds of trash from the ocean, one pound for each dollar collected.
Childs said, “I would say that the project was a very good success, especially considering that we had many snow days throughout the three week period of the money-collecting challenge. The non-profit organization, ‘Team Seas’ has raised more than 32 million dollars to help clean up our oceans. I am so happy that CHS could help out with this ocean clean up.”
School-wide, Chester High School collected a total of $345.91 to be donated to “Team Seas”, thus allowing 345 pounds of trash to be removed from the ocean. With the help of young people all over the world, “Team Seas” has removed 32,604,005 pounds of trash from our oceans.
Evelyn Hankins said, “Since the ‘Green Team’s inception, they have organized a school recycling program for paper, plastic bottles, and tin cans. The club painted seven plastic barrels and placed them around the school for plastic bottle recycling.”
“We are also collecting plastic caps to buy a bench and planters which are made of recycled plastic. We are funding these efforts through the program, ‘Caps for Cash’ through Coca-Cola and ‘Our Caps Your Cause’ by Prairie Farms.”