Crew Spotlight: Earth Guardians South Eugene High School
We'd like to give some recognition to our Crew from Eugene, Oregon, EG350 South. They are a student-led group from South Eugene High School always bettering the environment through civics, activism, and education. They are one of the more active clubs, with over 50 members, tackling problems for their school as well as in their community. They successfully got their school certified as an Oregon Green School and with that certification received $500, which they put towards replacing plastic utensils with reusable silverware in their cafeteria.
Their club has also secured funding from the school district for the replacement of all the windows within the school. Currently, there are single-paned asbestos lined windows that create an immense energy loss and are harmful to the student’s health in the long run. This summer they will be replaced with double-paned windows. Adding to the "going green" element of their school, they created and distributed recycling guides to each classroom, which have reduced unnecessary waste.
Back in April, they put on a presentation to celebrate Earth Day 2018 with a climatology professor from the University of Oregon and climate activist, Kelsey Juliana. Although this event was optional, over 250 students attended! Many students were so inspired that afterwards, they had their own new project ideas they wanted to pitch to the club.
By September, the Crew will be initiating a project to facilitate carpooling amongst students. They will create a database to connect students who need rides with those who can offer rides. The goal of this is to not only reduce carbon emissions within the school but to also create a sense of community around the fight for a healthy climate.
EG350 South was involved in a few important projects outside of their school as well, such as the Oregon Youth Legislative Initiative on Climate Justice (OYLI). They connected students from all over Oregon with their senators and created email templates for them to personalize and send to their senators about the students’ stakes in the climate crisis. On February 19, 2018, they organized a lobby day at the Oregon State Capitol. 19 students from all over Oregon communicated their support for climate legislation in 12 meetings with senators. This Crew is also lobbying the Eugene Water and Electric Board to change policies that make the acquisition of solar panels more expensive.
Not only are they making a positive impact in their own community, they are also putting their time and energy towards helping other communities that are facing environmental consequences. They partnered with 350Tuvalu and planned a benefit concert to raise money for the planting of mangroves to reduce erosion along the tiny island nation of Tuvalu that is being threatened by rising sea levels. They ended up raising over $500.
This Crew is truly an unstoppable force that wants to change the world!
Show your support and follow their actions by visiting their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/756386041138461/about/
Meeting with Oregon Senate President