After a long, cold winter in Manhattan, Kansas, the temperature outside is increasing, the trees are blooming, and students are spending more and more time outside.

While the start of spring reminds everyone of new growth in nature, Environmental Club has continued their efforts to learn and educate others about our world throughout the school year.

“At freshman on the hill, they had a skull identification activity,” said Freshman Lauren Day, “and throughout the semester we do a lot of learning how to ID certain things or just learning how to be a better activist for the environment in general.

Their freshman on the hill stand was one of the first activities held by Environmental Club. At one of their club meetings, they created posters with nature designs to encourage students to make more environmentally sound decisions like recycling proper materials and using a reusable water bottle. Now that the erratic weather of Kansas winters has started to subside, members are planning more outdoor events.

“Some upcoming events include a local beekeeping visit, kayak river cleanup, arbor day tree planting, and some fun end of the year activities.” Senior Kate Anderson, the club’s vice president, said. “We are also currently working with the art club to possibly create a nature themed mural at the end of E-Hall.”

This painting is a great way to raise environmental awareness as well as add an artistic feature of the school. The mural will feature a landscape of the tallgrass prairie, with facts about the prairie beside it. Environmental Club will contribute the information and facts and Art Club will have artistic license for the mural. This project is a great way for club collaboration and for members to have a common goal to work towards.

“The people who go to Environmental Club all really want to learn and care about the environment.” Junior Lyndon Auckly said. “So we have a lot of meetings where we go and ID skulls or we go and we walk in the Konza prairie and we learn different grasses and that’s a lot of fun.

Environmental Club is a great way for students at MHS to connect over the common interest of nature. These students are also working to help MHS make more green choices with a future project that they are working toward, compostable lunch trays.

“We hope that next year Environmental Club will continue fundraising for compostable lunch trays,” said Senior Kate Anderson, “and educating our peers.”