PV Environmental Club continues to benefit community
Cassidy Smith
The Pascack Valley Environmental Club works very hard to help not only PV, but also the world we live in. Mrs. Michela Piccoline and Ms. Kristen Lindstrom run the environmental club and both share a love for the earth.
Piccoline started the club because she is a biology teacher and cares about the environment. She and club president senior Neekta Pico actively encourage students to get more involved with the club.
Some of the activities the club has held include the selling of bottle shakers at football games made from recycled bottles, the cleaning of the the Sapienza Gardens, the removal of trash from the park behind the school, and the cleaning and weeding out of the pond in the courtyard.
Their club meetings are usually held during lunch once a month. It is required to obtain a certain amount of “activity points”, which are acquired by going to meetings and attending the events.
“There are many good things about the environmental club,” said Naria Zuluaga, a PV freshman and club member. “It feels good to help the community and give back.”
Zuluaga enjoys that there are a lot of people from different grades participating in the club, and noted that it is nice to interact with different people.
In October, the Environmental Club held a costume drive which served as their first fundraiser of the year. The object of this fundraiser was to collect old Halloween costumes to be reused instead of rotting in basement closets.
They also held a toy drive in December. Students were asked to bring in toys that were in decent condition to give to kids whose parents couldn’t afford toys for the holidays.
Throughout the course of the year, students have been collecting bottle caps to create a poster for Valley Cup points. Each grade made a mural out of these bottle caps which were judged at the Wellness Fair. The sophomores won the event, while the freshmen placed second, the seniors came in third, and the juniors came in last.
Most recently, however, the club planted a garden in front of the new tennis courts in the back of the school. The garden was paid for using money from their reusable water bottle sales. The water bottle sales will be continued until the end of the year and can be bought from anyone in the club as well as Lindstrom and Piccoline.
