Environmental Club Recycles

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The O.Henry Middle School Environmental Club was started in 2008 by science teachers Gretchen Kehrberg and Michelle Brown. When the club began, O.Henry could only recycle paper on campus. Frustrated with the lack of recycling of glass, cans and plastic, the club began bringing recycling bins to the cafeteria and recycling them on their own!  The club members, ranging from 6th to 8th graders, would monitor the recycling in the cafeteria, then sort and clean containers in the after school club. Ms. Kehrberg and Ms. Brown would then bring the recyclables to the Austin recycling center.

Picture below:  Environmental Club students from 2008 went to Port Aransas to learn more about the marine biology.

Now O.Henry and the rest of AISD can recycle glass, plastic and cans in a single-streaming recycling program. This has allowed the Environmental Club to have more time to water and plant veggies in our garden. The club has put up informative posters on every recycling bin and in the hallway and cafeteria so that students, faculty and staff know what can and cannot be recycled.  Students have helped develop the natural habitat outside and have celebrated Earth Day on campus with a door decorating contest. Students also attended the Earth Day celebration at the Farmer's Market.

Environmental Club student Marissa wrote an article on the Environmental Club in the 2008 edition of O.Henry's school newspaper: the O.Henry Rolling Stone News:

 Environmental club is not just any club. It is where any body can be a helping hand, and be appreciated for their love of the earth. The first meeting was Wednesday October 22, 2008 by Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Kerberg. The idea was pitched during the beginning of the school year.           

     “(We) wanted to help make the school more efficient and green& reduce the school’s carbon footprint.”Said seventh grade science teacher Mrs. Brown.

            In fact Mr. Freeman used to be in an environmental club in the 1970’s, and it used to be called ecology club but over time no one knew what ecology was so they changed it to environmental club and the name stuck.

             “Well every body thought they were doing some thing good and it was sort of like a service club and we cleaned the place of litter and sort of encouraged students to pick up litter in the halls and sort of taking care of the environment.” Said sixth grade councilor Mr. Freeman.

            So why so much interest for the earth? “Before I was a science teacher I worked for an environmental non profit organization called National Wildlife Federation, and I have always been interested in ecology. Plus Mrs. Brown and I have been very big on environmental issues.” Said sixth grade science teacher Mrs. Kerberg.

            Any body interested in joining the club just has to show up at Mrs. Brown’s classroom Wednesday at 3:30 to join. If you have any questions then just ask Mrs. Brown or Mrs. Kerberg.