The Environmental Club and the English department teamed up and traveled to Santa Monica Beach on Saturday to participate in its first beach cleanup. The cleanup was organized in collaboration with Heal the Bay, an environmental non-profit organization.
The Environmental Club and English department teamed up for the first time with Heal the Bay, an environmental non-profit organization, to organize a beach clean-up at Santa Monica Beach on Saturday.
“The beach cleanup was lots of fun, and it was really cool to see so many people joining together to help the environment,” Annie Wendorf ’19 said.
Students of the club organized the cleanup in hopes of raising community awareness about environmental problems and solutions, science teacher and club adviser Nadine Eisenkolb said.
“I am excited that people who really care about being good environmental stewards got an opportunity to help the environment and make things better,” Eisenkolb said. “I am also excited Harvard-Westlake got to connect to a greater community which strives to live with purpose beyond self.”
Club member Anja Clark ’19 expressed the importance of the school being environmentally conscious.
“It’s cool that the beach cleanup is in conjunction with the English department as it expands the Environmental Club’s reach to more people,” Clark said. “Generally though, we need to look after the earth and it is our responsibility take care of it, so student or not, people should partake in similar events.”
A few junior English classes encouraged its students to sign up to attend the event as well.
“I think that it was really cool to have both departments working together on a service project,” Rachel Grode ‘19 said. “Although APES students had more of a direct correlation to their curriculum, I thought that it was really beneficial, since English is reading Moby Dick, to express concern about our beaches.”
As president of the Environmental Club next year, Clark hopes to impact the school community and continue the momentum of the club.
“Before I leave, I really hope to inspire students and faculty to be more conscious about the environment and to continue to make HW as plastic-free and sustainable as possible,” Clark said.