CHS Green Team helps to clean up our oceans

The Chester High School Environmental Club, The Green Team, recently conducted a project to help create awareness about how polluted our oceans have become. The project included a three-week fundraiser that raised $345.91 to help clean up 345 pounds of trash from the ocean.

A relatively new club, The Green Team was started in 2018-2019 by science teacher Carolyn Kish and is now sponsored by Evelyn Hankins.

"I have been pleasantly surprised that there has been a lot of interest in the club and students are actually excited about both it and the environment," Kish said.

This semester the Green Team decided to do something to help clean up the oceans by raising funds for Team Seas, a nonprofit that removes one pound of trash for each dollar donated.

Senior Anna Childs led the Green Team in a three-week schoolwide fundraising effort for Team Seas. The challenge was simple: The class that collected the most money would collect a sweet treat - an ice cream party for the entire class.

"I would say that the project was a very good success, especially considering that we had many snow days throughout the three-week period of the money-collecting challenge," Child said.

The winner was Dwight Lochhead's sixth-hour pre-calculus class, which collected $122.43 to claim the ice cream party. More importantly, Lochhead's class helped Team Seas to remove 122 pounds of trash from the ocean.

"Team Seas has raised more than $32 million to help clean up our oceans," Childs said. "I am so happy that CHS could help out with this ocean clean up."

According to Hankins, since its inception the Green Team has organized a school recycling program for paper, plastic bottles, and tin cans, and also painted seven plastic barrels and placed them around the school for plastic bottle recycling.

Currently the club is colleting plastic caps to buy a bench and planters made of recycled plastic through programs sponsored by Coca-Cola and Prairie Farms.