By Sarah Opdahl

With many adults seeking best ways to help the environment, there is  a corresponding rise in young p eople who are passionate to effect change. Enter: New Fairfield Public School District’s Ecology/Environmental Club. In its second year, the club is thriving, with students engaged from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Members at the secondary level are driving the club’s agenda with themed meetings and projects, such as a recent focus on sustainable use and reuse of textiles. They met to discuss textile waste and then followed the meeting with a winter clothing drive for the New Fairfield Thrift Shop. A longer-term project is in progress – placing a textile recycling container on school grounds to aid in informing the community about textile recycling and offer a sustainable option for discarding reusable items.

Senior Ava O’Rourke is the president of the Environmental Club for the second year. She appreciates that many members love to be outdoors and has organized field trips to support their interests, such as a “trip to Great Hollow Nature Preserve and Ecological Research Center in May, where students did spring cleaning and planted the garden.”

The club was spearheaded by faculty from each school: Heidi Edel, New Fairfield High School French Teacher, Barbara Strashun, the Enrichment Teacher at Meeting House Hill School and Danelle Kulbieda, the Steam Innovation Teacher at the Middle School. At the high school level, the club meets every two weeks and the officers meet with Edel in between meetings, during the Rebel period, to plan the club’s initiatives. “The best part about working with these students is to see their enthusiasm and how they are harnessing it to make a change in their schools and growing as learners in the process,” Edel said. In addition to O’Rourke, officers are: Matas Aleksas, Vice President, Brady Cheneski, Treasurer, and Hudson Schaefer, Secretary.

On a recent December afternoon, over thirty of the Environmental Club’s high and middle school members gathered for a Trash Talk presentation by Tammy Thornton from the Housatonic Resources Recovery Authority (HRRA). They were rapt with attention as she demystified the process of what happens to garbage and recycling when it leaves New Fairfield. Thornton, who was raised in New Fairfield, explained that it all goes to a waste energy plant that converts as many materials as possible  into useful byproducts. She detailed the process, with a corresponding slideshow, of how each type of garbage or recyc ling is handled at the facility. Thornton issued the facts about what can and cannot be recycled, declaring that many in the area are “wishcyclers,” who add anything they hope can be recycled to their pile. A dynamic quiz of “can this be recycled” was fun for the students. Thornton pointed out the many items that can be recycled for free at the local drop-off center, such as electronics, mattresses, and textiles. Students asked insightful questions and absorbed the information with interest.

Knowing her audience, Thornton was excited to pass along local ways to help, such as an initiative to drop off organic food scraps for compost at the New Fairfield Drop-Off Center. The organic materials are sent to a New Milford farm and composted. Participants in the program can, in turn, receive complimentary compost for their gardens in the spring. Edel is ready to jump on board with the full district club, saying, “Going forward, we plan on working with Billie Jo Watson, who runs the cafeterias, to reduce food waste. The students have a lot of ideas, so I will also follow their lead!”