DANVILLE — Members of the Danville-area high school PLANET club are working hard to keep the school clean and free of debris.
PLANET is an organization of over 70 Danville area high school students working to make their school more environmentally friendly. They lead the high school recycling program and participate in Adopt-A-Highway in the spring and fall.
The club is open to all students, said PLANET Club faculty supervisor Michael Mast.
The club meets once a week.
Mast has been an adviser to the club for around 15 years, he said. “And he was in place before that. It is therefore in no way a new club.
“The main thing we’re involved in is recycling in high school,” Mast said.
But the PLANET Club also participates in the beautification of the territory.
“Currently, we are working on planting trees on the high school campus,” he said.
Another club project, Mast said, “is to recycle plastic at our football matches. This is when we have a greater volume of plastic to recycle. »
Maddie Sauers, a high school student, is president of PLANET. Sauers said she originally joined the club because “the environment and its health are very important to me,” she said.
The idea of recycling is something she wanted to do in school.
“My group is responsible for collecting all the boxes we find and putting them in the dumpsters. It sounds a little unglamorous, but it’s really fun,” she said.
Sauers also made quite a few friends through his involvement with the club. “I just like the weekly recycling we do.”
One of the things on the club’s radar is raising money to plant trees, Sauers said.
After high school, Sauers plans to major in engineering.
Ryan Hause, also a senior and vice-president of the club, also focuses on environmental issues.
One of the reasons he joined, he said, is that “being able to recycle is kind of a nice break. Be with the band and do something good for the Earth.
One of the things they learn from their participation is what items can be recycled.
“Every day there is a lot of trash going out and into the dumpster,” he said.
Hause said he “really loves the Adopt-A-Highway program.” The latest was the section of Route 11 from Dunkin to the school.
People would be amazed at the amount of litter and debris being picked up constantly, Hause and Sauers said.
“Every week we fill two large dumpsters with recyclables,” Hause said.
Class Acts is a weekly feature highlighting Valley School District students, teachers, programs and projects. Email suggestions for upcoming stories to [email protected].