St. John Goes Green

Written by Christina Shepard, 10th gr.

       "To produce each week's Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down." "If all our newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year." These are a few statements that were made in a youtube video named Why Recycle 101 at the beginning of the first Go Green meeting at St. John Lutheran School. Students have started making a change in the worlds environment for the past few years according to Recycling.org. St. Johns has just begun their recycling program, but their club leaders hope it will make a great change in Ocala.

            The Go Green club plans on doing many things this year for our environment. One would be putting paper bins in classrooms for used paper that will be recycled. The club is planning on picking up trash in the Saints Cafe one day each week at lunch. They are planning on doing things outside of school also, like picking up trash on the highway. The Go Green club will be raising money through what they are calling "Lunch Line Awareness," which will be a bucket in the concession stand for spare change.  Proceeds will go towards the purchase of recycling bins for St. Johhn.

            The first official Go Green meeting at St. Johns Lutheran School was held on September 21st. Kelli Ozcel, the president of the Go Green club, had a very good and organized presentation planned for the first meeting.  The meetings for Go Green will be every other Tuesday, starting with the first Tuesday of the month, during lunch. This years board for the Go Green club includes, Kelli Ozcel as president, Morgan Zack as vice president, Shelby Nazzari as secretary, and Holly Tackett as chaplain. When asked how she wants Go Green to influence the school, Kelli Ozcel said, "I am hoping that St. John students won't be so wasteful during lunch!" Make sure to come to the next Go Green meeting on October 5th!