Schools
H.O.P.E. Club Keeps Kennedy Green
Students promote environmentally friendly ideas throughout their school and community.
Environmentally conscious students at Kennedy High School created the club H.O.P.E. (Helping Our Planet Earth) share a strong interest in a green Earth and spreading conservationist ideals.
Formed to generate awareness of sustainability, students and faculty created this club to show the school and community how they can help make the planet safe and plentiful for future generations.
Student founders Stephanie Weiner and Emily Mauser joined together to start this club along with faculty advisors Barbi Frank and Britt Norris. Now, they are over 120 members strong.
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As interest began in the fall of 2007, H.O.P.E. was officially developed with full certification as a club in the fall of 2008. Members say the most exciting event the club has already done was the Reinhard Recycler's to the Rescue program. This allowed the group to interact with younger children and teach the importance in recycling. Also, during the school's Earth Week, the club made a big impact on the student population.
"Earth Week is an exciting time where the school's green spirit comes alive," member Ross Shulman said.
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H.O.P.E. anticipates creating a Green Fair, where local, environmentally-friendly vendors would be able to feature their materials as a neighborhood market.
The club's main objective is to "promote greener lifestyles," Weiner said. By reaching out beyond their high school community, this club will provide the entire district with the tools to increase their green efforts.
"Our students have the power to engage the community and show how important our movement is," Weiner said.
Both Shulman and Weiner established their feelings about how everyone needs to simply be environmentally friendly.
While Weiner plans to continue her environmental activism at the University Of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business this fall, Schulman said he wants to eventually "open a locally grown, organic restaurant and/or teach children to be environmental conservationists as they will be the adults of tomorrow."
