The North Atlanta Environmental Club — or E-Club — is working hard to make the world a greener and healthier place, and its activities focus on the hallways and classrooms of North Atlanta. The group has two presidents, juniors Keely Fitzsimmons and Avery Culp. The group has two faculty sponsors, art teacher Natalie Brandhorst and environmental sciences instructor Mike Hutchins.

The group hopes seeks to educate the student body about the importance of environmental preservation for both today’s and future generations of North Atlanta students.

The club started in 2013 when a cohort of environmentally conscious students noticed a lack of environmental awareness at the school. “We’re here to spread a message of environmental conservation,” said Fitzsimmons. “If we’re going to save the planet it starts closest to home and for us that means here at the home of the Warriors.”

The group is tackling many projects this year, including using rain barrels to collect rainfall that can be repurposed. This is not the clubs’ first go-around with rain barrels. Two years ago, E-Club worked in tandem with art students to create decorated barrels and the colorful product of this collaboration can still be found on the campus today.

The group has just started the implementing a school-wide recycling plan. Future plans including building planters to beautify school entrances and eventually creating a school garden.

The green-focused organization emphasizes the importance of considering the world’s health in our lives even beyond high school. Fitzsimmons cited the ever-increasing carbon footprints that all consumers make in an industrial economy, all of which is leading the ominous plant-altering things like climate change and global warming. “Environmental issues are becoming so much more important and it’s no overstatement to say the fate of the planet depends on what we do today” said Fitzsimmons.

The club is always looking for new members. It meets every other Thursday in Room 7123, the room of Jeane Hall, the the group’s new faculty sponsor.

Get there because it’s always keen to be green!