Perry’s “Go Green Week” changes the way students think

Karson Hentges, Emily Narducci, Staff Reporter

With a world fueled by gasoline and polluted by the very people that built it up, the Earth is a precious, yet very vulnerable place. The privilege of living on this mecca of opportunities may be something for adults and children alike can take for granted, but this definitely is not the case for everyone. This week kicked off the first annual “Perry Goes Green Week” run by the AP Environmental Science (APES) classes. Monday was dubbed “Motorless Monday”, where students were encouraged to carpool to school and save the atmosphere of carbon monoxide and greenhouse gas emissions. The following day, titled “Take Two Tuesday”, focused on recycling and making the most of things that have gone to waste. Finally, Wednesday was “Waste-less Wednesday”,which also promoted making things last beyond their surface-level use.

Ms. Lyon, head of Perry’s new “greener” movement, aims to change the way students act and think today regarding the environment. “The whole idea of green week,” stated Lyon, “is to get students to pause and think for a second about the consequences of our actions and how small behavioral changes can have a larger impact.” As this is the first year of this movement at Perry, all of the changes may seem a little new to students. However, Lyon hopes to influences students enough that “Perry Goes Green” will be something that will persist throughout future classes.

This week has already shown great impact on the study body, though, as students of Lyon’s have quickly adjusted to the new system with full support. Senior Andrew Knutson, who was in charge of planning for “Take Two Tuesday”, claimed that going green,“helps bring awareness to our consumption here at Perry High School.” Along with Knutson, junior Joseph Conroy, who is not enrolled in APES, proudly said that if, “we raise awareness now as high schoolers, we could eventually help change the world.”

There comes a time in everyone’s life where one must face something bigger than themselves. When stareing the secular issue of pollution and wastefulness in the face, the only solution that can make an impact on not only one person, but also the world, is to do something about it. With the help of Ms. Lyon and “Perry Goes Green Week”, as a school, we are taking a huge leap in saving what we call ours.