In celebration of Earth Day, the Archer Council for Sustainability and the Artemis Center decked the courtyard out with sustainable activities for students Monday, April 22.
The activities included a clothing swap, upcycling booth, a seed bomb-making station, as well as places to stop by to learn more about sustainability and related service work. Afterwards, ACS invited students to join them in the garden to help with Archer’s composting system and learn how to make recycled paper.
To further inspire students to act on environmental issues, the ACS Executive Board and faculty adviser Casey Huff brought a panel of sustainability professionals to speak to upper school students from 10:30-11 a.m.
The panel included co-founder of JUST Water Drew FitzGerald and Deputy Sustainability Officer for Santa Monica Shannon Parry. The panelists spoke about ways students can participate in environmental activism and emphasized the importance of implementing sustainability to the students’ fields of interest.
Huff said she aims to connect the community with sustainability, and ACS made an effort to create multiple activities everyone was able to participate in.
“This Exec Board in particular really wanted to do something bigger and find ways to engage everybody in our community, thinking about the sixth graders all the way through the seniors,” Huff said.
Junior Annie Altemus helped run the clothing swap, which gave students the opportunity to exchange their items with their peers. According to Altemus, all leftover clothing will be donated to Yes We Can, an organization that assists immigrant families at the border.
“You can even just swap [clothes] with your friends at home. If you have something you don’t wear, you can give it to your friends,” Altemus said. “They’ll get great use out of it.”
Freshman Adella Travers attended the Earth Day celebration and said she enjoyed the event while learning about sustainability.
“I’m definitely going to be aware of how my actions are impacting the natural world, especially in relation to the clothes that I wear and how my choices are affecting the environment at large,” Travers said.
This is the second year Altemus organized the clothing swap. She coordinated a similar event last school year, but it did not take place on Earth Day.
“You don’t need to buy from these big fast fashion corporations in order to get clothes,” Altemus said.
Travers said she looks forward to courtyard events like these and had fun partaking in different activities.
“I think that all of Archer’s courtyard events are a distinctive part of the school’s culture,” Travers said. “And I think that events like this really are a fun way to learn about sustainability.”
Huff said she wants students to take away from the event that there are ways to get involved with sustainability regardless of one’s interests.
“Sustainability is for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you know a ton about the science and if you know nothing about science, just whatever speaks to you,” Huff said. “If you’re into art, if you’re into music, if you’re into fashion, whatever, there’s literally a way for you to take that passion and connect it to the environment. We all have to live on this planet.”
