WEB EXCLUSIVE Eco Friends club is hosting a week of environment related challenges beginning April 19 in honor of Earth Day on April 22. Grade levels can earn points by participating and sharing photos to the club’s Instagram. 

Starting with a challenge to abstain from eating meat on Monday, the club aims to raise awareness for environmental issues by showing changes that can be made in daily life to protect the environment, according to club co-leader Madi Lerseth.

“Right now there are a lot of environmental problems in our world,” club co-leader Naia Urruty said. “It is important to educate students in our school about these problems so they can take action in their lives and through the activities we provide.” 

The challenge on Tuesday is to watch eco-related documentaries and learn about the impact of issues such as climate change, pollution, and fast fashion. 

“I am planning on watching the documentary ‘Seaspiracy’ on Netflix,” junior Cristina Jackson said. “It is important that our school participates in the challenges because we can focus on how important our environment is and how important it is to conserve.” 

Eco Friends is challenging the community to walk or bike to school on Wednesday. Transportation accounted for the largest sector of greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. 

“As a student it can be hard to get engaged and be excited about the environment,” Lerseth said. “We hope that with the eco week we can make it a little more fun to learn about the issues that are going on.” 

Thursday focuses on reducing waste by challenging the community to wear thrifted clothing. The following day, students can donate to organizations that work to protect the environment. 

“Each day focuses on a different issue to show the variety of problems we are faced with,” Urruty said. “We hope challenge week changes people’s perspectives on their environmental impact.”