JEFFERSON — “As the Jefferson Area High School Green Team, we aspire to impact our school, district, community and world by educating others on their environmental impact and involving the students and the community in efforts to improve our global environment.” This is the vision statement of the newly created Jefferson Area High School Green Team; a student-run organization that focuses on bettering the environment through education of others.
The movement to start such a group was spearheaded by David Perfetto, now the president of the Green Team, late last school year. He asked Stacy Hinkle, a Spanish teacher at Jefferson, about starting a group which would focus on educating the school, district, community and world about our environmental impacts. Early this school year, the Green Team was created and now has at least 30 members.
When Jefferson High School moved into the new school, Perfetto saw this as a great time to bring about some change in the way we do things.
“I am environmentally friendly at my house because my grandparents got me going in this,” said Perfetto. “Jefferson has never had a group like this, but when we moved, I thought it would be a great time for us to become aware of our impacts on our surroundings.”
After the creation of the organization, long-term and short-term goals were adopted in order to steer the Green Team in a positive direction. Short-term goals consisted of creating a recycling program at the high school, educating the high school as well as elementary students on their global impact, volunteering to clean up various areas of our community, planting a tree and recycling ink cartridges. Some long-term goals include starting a district-wide recycling program, cleaning the Greenway Trail, working with the cafeteria to utilize environmentally friendly products, organizing a community celebration of Earth Day, and starting a cell phone recycling program. The Green Team wasted no time when it came to achieving these set goals.
With all the change happening in the new school, progress is already evident. To help conserve energy, automatic turn-off lights were installed on every light in the school, so after five minutes of inactivity in the area, those lights will turn off. A new addition coming soon to the new school complex will be a wind turbine generator, expected to significantly reduce the heating or cooling cost by generating enough electricity to run the heating or cooling systems. Another great addition to the new school was 55 new paper recycling bins, made out of recycled plastic themselves. After receiving a $600 grant from the Jefferson Memorial Foundation, the money was used to purchase a recycling bin for every classroom and office area.
Some changes have been made by adjusting the things we already have. After realizing how much energy is wasted by leaving a computer on screen saver mode, Perfetto contacted Mark Pickard, Jefferson Area Local Schools technology coordinator, about changing over 200 computers from screen saver mode to stand-by mode when left idle.
“I did some research and found out that a computer uses over 200 more watts of energy in screen saver mode as compared to stand-by,” Perfetto said. “A change this small and easy will make such an impact over time.”
Once a week the Green Team meets before school to further its education. The group is presented with five “going green” tips that can be implemented to positively impact our surrounding ecosystem. Members are encouraged to share these tips with students, teachers, family members or friends in order to better educate the community. A Power Point presentation is then shown, educating team members on topics such as plastics reuse and water conservation. Every member is actively participating in order to attain the short- and long-term goals.
Members include Perfetto, Kyrsten Adley, Analysse Altman, Kayleen Altman, Will Applebee, Jewell Chappell, Vanessa Coleman, Amber Dumperth, Emily Fuller, Emily Forristal, Maddi Gillespie, Sara Henry, Rachel Hodge, Kelsey Hruska, Liz Hubler, Mary Jackson, Juleah Landis, Gidget Marrison, Tabitha Mitchell, Brenna Mirazek, Sam Morford, Breanna Mott, Paige Neely, Brandon Osborne, Lindey Pestello, Shelby Potter, Brittany Reynolds, Karen Sharp, Calynn Smith, Tyler Starcher, Kelly Tisch and Rita Zack. The Green Team is advised by Stacy Hinkle.
The JAHS Green Team has really opened our community’s eyes to how easy it is to help keep our Earth beautiful.
“The smallest changes will help out in a movement like this, everyone in the school and community is making a difference by altering their lifestyle slightly in order to positively affect our environment,” Hinkle said. “I am glad students are taking it upon themselves to educate others on becoming eco-friendly. It shows the type of students we have here at Jefferson.”
Next Generation
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Jefferson's Green Team finding many ways to save the environment
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