The Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club has marked the second year of its popular Eco-Grants program with awards to two deserving local high school programs.
Last year, a Sierra Club Eco-Grant allowed the students of Morro Bay High School's Environmental Club to create a vermiculture bin. This year's $300 award will be used to create composting bins in their school garden. Composting vegetative matter from the garden and collected from the school cafeteria means green waste will stay on site instead of going to a landfill. The green waste will be naturally broken down and reused in the garden. Students will collect green waste, assemble and manage the composting bins, and educate other students on the benefits of composting.
The Environmental club is made up of approximately 15 students who are dedicated to raising awareness about lessening the human impact on the environment and coming up with ways to help preserve nature. The club's eco-friendly activities include making crafts out of recycled materials and hosting clothes exchanges for the community to get involved in recycling.
The Green Leadership elective class from Atascadero High School's Greenhound Academy will use their $350 Eco-Grant to construct and place compost, recycling and landfill (trash) bins on their campus. Instead of throwing everything away, students on campus will recycle and partake in the cycle of compost, which goes to the school's organic garden. Each section of the bins will be labeled with what exactly can go in each bin ("Compost" - veggies, fruit, milk cartons, paper; "Recycle" - cans, bottles, bags; "Landfill - Styrofoam, meat, etc.)
Students from the Atascadero Greenhound Academy address the Sierra Club
at the Steynberg Gallery in SLO. Photo by Sierra Club
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The Greenhound Academy is a school-within-a-school with a green focus. Students take courses with a "green" theme, and environmental electives focused on ecology, sustainability and renewable resources. A total of 113 students from grades 9 through 11 are involved this year; next year the program will expand to all grade levels and contain approximately 150 students.
"We hope these two high schools, in fairly close proximity to each other, will share information and/or student contact," said Eco-Grant program coordinator Joe Morris. "That would probably be motivating and instructive for both schools."
