Students enact in environmental preservation

Enact Club members are saving the earth one meeting at a time.

HIT THE TRAILS: The entrance to the NPHS Environmental Study Area, where the Enact Club began working on a trail during the 2017-18 school year.

Devan Baldwin

HIT THE TRAILS: The entrance to the NPHS Environmental Study Area, where the Enact Club began working on a trail during the 2017-18 school year.

Devan Baldwin
CLEAN UP: Enact Club members ready to work on the trail.

TOWAMENCIN – Tucked away to the right S-lot, most students fail to notice an opening to a trail with a sign displaying “NPHS Environmental Study Area.” To Enact Club members, this area has become familiar. Last school year, members of the Enact Club began laying down tarp for the trail, and they have already spent their first two meetings continuing the project. Other than this ongoing project, the Enact Club plans to spread awareness about helping the environment.

“This year, one major goal is to try to do more school events and spread the word about [Enact] Club, because it’s kind of a dying club,” stated one of the two Enact Club Presidents, Dyani Clark.

Although the Enact Club has many returning members, it is still important to the club that students educate themselves about their surrounding environment and strive to be more environmentally friendly.

“[North Penn students] can become more active in the environment, like going outside more and just understanding what’s around them is the basis for the entire awareness aspect. Once you’re aware of it, there are things you are going to do to try to protect [the environment],” added club President Pedro Miranda.

The Enact Club also hopes to pursue projects like adding bird houses and bird feeders to the trail, as well as planting flowers in the bus circle area. During meetings in the winter months, the club plans to have presenters come in with live animals to help educate students on the surrounding ecosystem.

The Enact Club has an upcoming field trip to the Althouse Arboretum in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. The goal of this trip is to build teamwork skills on the low ropes course and to surround themselves with nature. The club is currently planning future field trips that focus on hiking and other outdoor activities.

The Enact Club also offers ways for North Penn students to get involved, one of which is the annual stream cleanup. In the springtime, the Enact Club will begin organizing the stream cleanup, giving students the opportunity to gain volunteer hours, help their community, and educate themselves on the environment.

“The second you’re out here, you’re going to want to do more,” stated Miranda.

INTO THE WOODS: Enact Club Members hiking the trail they helped create. (Photo by Devan Baldwin)

Following the successful water bottle fundraiser last year, the Enact Club is currently planning more fundraisers for later in the school year. The club is going to continue with the water bottle fundraiser, and plans to revive the Earth Day t-shirt sale from two years ago.

A new fundraiser idea, proposed by Clark, is stickers. Many sticker companies are now producing compostable stickers, as well as printing them with soy inks, leading to lower levels of volatile organic compounds being released into the environment.

With the increasing need for awareness about our environment, it is not too late for North Penn students to become involved in Enact Club. Students can come to any meeting during the year, sign a work form, and officially become a member of the club. The next meeting is Tuesday, October 30th in C117. The Enact Club typically meets on the first and third Tuesday of every month.

“It’s what we live in. You want to protect your home, and the Earth is everybody’s home. You wouldn’t want somebody going into your house and trashing it up and leaving stuff everywhere that could hurt your animals or your family or your own health,” said Clark.