Students Create Green Club to Promote Recycling, Saving the Earth

Two students at Sacred Heart Elementary School are determined to make a difference through a recycling club they initiated in an effort to help save the planet.

“We started a green club last April and we are continuing it this year,” said Jordan Schmitt, 11, of Edgewood.

Schmitt and her friend, Sophia Salvi, 11, of Forest Hills, decided to start the club after the school principal held an assembly voicing her concerns about students who were not recycling water bottles in the cafeteria.

“We decided to make a green club because the problem came up,” Salvi said.

Through the green club, which now has more than 20 members, gardens have been planted at the school while the students also sort recycling materials at lunch and pick up litter.

While some students leave caps on the water bottles, preventing them from being able to be recycled, Salvi and Schmitt stay after to take them off.

“It’s not all about picking up trash—last year, we did a fundraiser where we painted faces to raise money for the Jane Goodall Foundation,” Schmitt said.

It’s also been a source of fun for the two friends, while at the same time, making them feel good. The club meets twice a month.

“We are going to carve pumpkins and use the pumpkin seeds to make more pumpkins and start a garden at the school,” Salvi said.

The pair also are determined to make Sacred Heart an official green school, and are already working towards completing the checklist needed to gain that recognition. Some of the requirements include installing all LED light bulbs, hanging up posters about reducing water and electricity use and other awareness activities.

“It’s important to make a difference in the world because people aren’t really doing their jobs to not litter and do stuff like that, so we want to try and do that,” Salvi said.

Schmitt also said their efforts always go back to the bigger picture of helping the environment.

“We don’t want things to be polluted,” she said. “If you don’t recycle, it will all just be wasted and sit in the earth in a landfill for years and years and that’s not good for the earth.”

The girls also enjoy meeting like-minded students through the green club they helped to create.

“We want to make a difference in the world and so do those people, and I like that,” Salvi said.