A Green Club meeting: An open classroom filled with students who want to learn about nature and work on projects in hopes of helping the environment. Students have run a “green club” for around 20 years. During the meetings, they hope to help do activities to bring the community together and work with friends. Over the years they have created a safe space for nature as well as keeping up with past creations like the rain garden underneath the pedway.

Currently, the Green Club is run by Colleen Epperson, a teacher in the science department. She has been working with the Green Club since 2019, which has helped to grow the club and change its overall focus. 

Since the beginning, the club has been focused on doing better for the environment however it is a little different than anticipated.  “The green club got started probably about 20 years ago as more of a recycling club and I was involved a little bit with my environmental science class at one point we would collect cans while the green club collected paper,” says Epperson.

The Green club started as a recycling club, therefore it didn’t focus on Kentucky’s environmental health. Kentucky’s Green and Healthy Schools project is a program that focuses on improving the well-being of schools through students and staff and is run by the KEEC (Kentucky Environmental Education Council) and the Kentucky Department of Education. Which is something that our school currently focuses on through the Green Club.

The green club was also started by others than Epperson. “So when it originally started it was Miss Schnitzler and a couple of other teachers who have now moved on who recognized that we were accumulating waste in the form of paper and plastic and cans,” continues Epperson. 

The Green club has evolved from more than just a recycling club and is now focusing more on keeping the world green.

Epperson became the Green Clubs’ new sponsor in 2019. With her being in charge, “Club needed a sponsor in 2019 and that’s when Davis Recht asked me to sponsor it. I said yes I would love to however I didn’t want it to just be about students picking up the recycling we want it to be more geared towards learning about sustainability and being able to bring students together.”

The next time the green club has a meeting, stop by and talk to Mrs. Epperson.