From April 19-24, 193 countries, including the United States, celebrate Earth Week. During this week, enviormental organizations work to promote enivormental education and sustainability through various events. Among those organizing events is Park’s Environmental club. This year, they celebrated the earth through a variety of events

Envirornmental Club President, Catherine Kotowski, said this week’s diverse event lineup—including a free seed packet table and other hands-on activities—was intentionally designed to encourage easy and active student participation.

“We did a free seed table outside Ms. Rennhak’s room, a trash pickup with NHS and encouraged people to walk or bike to school on Tuesday and throughout the entire week,” Kotowski said. “Then this weekend, we’re going to be (volunteering at) the Aquila Carnival and tabling at the Edina Earth Day Festival.”

Environmental club’s outreach coordinator Natalie Hall said the seedling tables were specifically designed to have a positive impact and target the increasingly relevant issue of excessive watering used on lawns. Hall said the seed tables provided students with the opportunity to plant native flowers in their own gardens, which will hopefully lead to healthy local ecosystems.

“One major environmental issue that I think a lot more people are recognizing currently is lawns and how much water they take up,” Hall said. “We targeted this issue this week with our seedling tables, which allowed students to plant more native flowers and vegetables and other things that are better for gardens and create more biodiversity, which can increase lawn health.”

Club advisor Emily Rennhak said witnessing students advocate for positive change in the community is one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching. She said she values her time with environmental club and admires their initiative and passion for making a difference.

“When people ask me why I’m a teacher, there are a lot of reasons, but one of the main reasons is that I feel very privileged and very lucky to watch young people, like the members of the Environmental club, doing something that matters,” Rennhak said.

Kotowski said celebrating Earth Day serves as an important reminder of climate change’s far-reaching effects, even for communities not immediately impacted. According to her, designating Earth Day on calendars worldwide raises awareness and encourages environmental recognition and understanding.

“(Celebrating Earth Day is) a good reminder, as it brings awareness to people who might not see the impacts of climate change every day in their own lives,” Kotowski said. “Earth Day brings these issues to the forefront of society, so everyone is able to recognize them and hopefully learn something from them.”

Hall said environmental club provides a valuable platform for raising awareness about critical environmental issues that might otherwise go unnoticed, specifically government-issued environmental acts.

“Usually, at the start of our meetings, we show slideshows that cover different things happening in the world right now,” Hall said. “A few months ago, we talked about a recent act that was passed, which allowed logging companies to cut down more trees without the EPA’s intervention. We had people write letters to senators so we could address that issue and potentially reverse that act.”

Rennhak said Earth Week is a powerful opportunity for the club to broaden its outreach. She said Earth Week events, such as tabling at festivals, not only foster collaboration with other schools but also help forge new connections beyond Park’s immediate community.

“Earth Week is definitely (environmental club’s) biggest week, and it’s become particularly special that we’ve been partnering with other schools,” Rennhak said. “For example, the event we’re doing on Sunday with the Edina Earth Club is becoming one of our favorite traditions because it shows we can have a wider impact than just our school community.”