Milton High’s Earth Club

Milton High’s Earth Club, with a total of 22 members, aims to promote sustainability within the school and the greater community by fundraising for environmental charities, cleaning up polluted areas of Milton, and lobbying for better waste solutions.

Whether it’s wildfires raging through California, or billions of animals burning alive in Australia,we strive to support those affected by environmental tragedies around the world. In the 2019-2020 school year, we held several fundraising events and raised over $1,000 for charities including the World Wildlife Fund and the California Community Foundation.

One of our school’s largest contributions to pollution (long term waste?) is the excessive use of plastic water bottles. Therefore with the help and funding from Sustainable Milton, we’ve successfully been able to eliminate the use of over 117,000 bottles with the installment of a water bottle filling station located outside our gymnasium. To continue this great success, we are working to get recycling bins into our cafeteria as well.

During the winter, a mass of trash accumulates in Pine Tree Brook. So, our club gets to get her every year and jump in the river and clean it up! . But we don’t just swim, we also enjoy hiking in the Blue Hills, where we organize an annual cleanup. On the political side of things, the power of activism can’t be ignored. We held a climate strike last spring, which got us the front page of a lovely local newspaper, and even got us an invitation to visit the State House, which we’ll be doing this spring.

But we’re not stopping there. Our plans in the upcoming months include 1.) collaborating with other organizations like Sustainable Milton and Milton Academy’s Lorax Club, 2.) get more involved in community events, and expand our reach and 3.) to make Milton a truly eco-friendly community. Our members of the club work hard and passionately to make a change. We believe that the smallest efforts to improve our climate can make a big difference if we all work together.

This article was written by MHS Earth Club members, Arlo Stoodt and Solveig Ask. Solveig is ajunior at MHS and is the first ever student board member of Sustainable Milton, serving as a link between the students and the rest of Sustainable Milton membership. Sustainable Milton is proud to have her working with us. Contact the Earth Club via instagram at mhsearthclub.