Durango High School Green Team club members picked up trash Wednesday at school campuses and near the Animas River as part of the club’s Zero Waste Week.
Student teams also gathered at Park Elementary School, Needham Elementary School, Riverview Elementary School and St. Columba School to help clean up the community.
“Our main goal is just making small changes every day because I can’t really do it all by myself,” said DHS Green Team Co-President Hays Stritikus. “But when you get large groups of people together they have the ability to change things.”
The Green Team is a group of school leaders and students who are committed to promoting and implementing the school’s sustainability plan.
The DHS Green Team formed last year when Stritikus and a group of friends from the debate team discussed creating an environmental club on campus. Since, the club has held forums about sustainability, community trash cleanups and voter registration events.
“A big part of it is just getting the community thinking but also raising awareness and promoting a greener future because climate change is a big factor,” said junior Sam Breezley.
The students filled plastic bags with trash Wednesday, finding items such as a jar of pickles, soda bottles and even abandoned sleeping bags near Junction Creek just south of the school.
For Green Team members, it is important that sustainability is a nonpartisan issue.
Breezley said the club does not promote political views and is open to anyone who wants to help the environment.
“It’s really important, not just for the Green Team, but for the environmental movement as a whole to maintain a bipartisan stance,” said sophomore Cedar Bremner. “Because the idea is to get everyone involved and the country is pretty evenly split along partisan lines.”
Stritikus said a reason why the club got involved with voter registration events was to show nonpartisanship. He said the group doesn’t care about political affiliation and just wants people to vote in general.
The high school club has members who come from different ends of the political spectrum but have agreed they won’t let opinions impact their dedication to sustainability.
Stritikus said partisanship polarizes people and then nothing is accomplished.
“Unfortunately, that's what it's come to with this climate crisis,” he said. “It’s an absence of leadership from the government to actually address this issue. Everyday people have to step up and make changes, and that's been our goal.”
Stritikus said politicizing sustainability is a reason why more students don’t get involved with the movement.
The club wants to expand to get elementary and middle school students involved with Green Team activities.
“I want to see a sustainable club that will keep helping kids find connections to nature because we live in such a beautiful place,” Stritikus said.
The club is in the process of becoming an after-school activity for all schools in the district rather than just at Durango High School.
Students can get involved by filling out a form on the school district’s website. An application process will be available for the start of next school year, with the goal of having at least one staff member at each school who is willing to help guide students on the team and meet with them a minimum of once every two weeks as an after-school program.
tbrown@durangoherald.com
