The annual Sustainability Week, which focused on environmental consciousness and energy conservation, ended on May 23. Students were encouraged to walk or bike to school every day and several new spirit days were introduced.
Junior Brooks Roenisch, a regular bike rider to school, was awarded the grand raffle prize of a $50 gift certificate to Sol Food. Roenisch noted that while his straw hat showed school spirit, it provided a challenge to ride with helmet on top.
During the week, students also attended environmental discussions led by sustainable advisers. In the Little Theater, Wen Lee, a member of Alliance for Climate Education, held several presentations discussing a student’s own environmental impact and encouraged students to “Do One Thing” to aid environmental conservation.
The week consisted of “dress like a farmer” Monday, “dress as your favorite endangered animal” Tuesday, all green Wednesday and rally day Thursday. Every morning, students who either walked or biked to school were rewarded raffle tickets in competition for various prizes.
Spirit wear for the week provided students with opportunities to flash their creativity. Following Monday, a day full of plaid shirts and straw hats, Tuesday tasked students with the challenge to dress as an endangered animal. While many students donned panda hats, supporting the endangered giant panda as well as major league baseball player Pablo Sandoval, several students such as junior Leo Zaklikowski, who represented the bottlenose dolphin, flaunted their knowledge of the animal kingdom.
The week was capped off with informational booths and free ice cream, as the Environmental Action Club helped facilitate the Sustainability Fair. Students were encouraged to participate in a no-cars-off-campus lunch by food and environmentally minded activities.
“This week showed students that they could have fun without leaving campus during lunch,” said junior Denali Chin, a member of the environmental club. “Hopefully people learned about their environmental impact as well as enjoyed the ice cream.”
Along with supporting Sustainability Week, the Environmental Action Club helps maintain the newly implemented sustainable garden. Equipped with garden hoes and fertilizers, the club, along with Ecology and AP Environmental Science classes, helped to establish Redwood’s young agriculture field. Students, along with the general public, can volunteer to tend the growing garden, which will soon become the outdoor classroom for the new science elective, Sustainable Agriculture, in the 2014-2015 school year.
