ROCHELLE – Fourth and fifth-graders at Tilton Elementary School are making a difference today, in hopes of protecting the planet for future generations.

This is the first year that Tilton Elementary School has created an environmental club for fourth and fifth-grade students. The main goal of the club is to inform and educate not just the students, but the community as well, that everything they do has an impact on the health of the planet.  

“The idea for the club started when the topic of using a different material than Styrofoam for lunch trays was brought up,” said Jenni Seibert, teacher at Tilton. “Mrs. Tooley then presented a PowerPoint on the environment to the students to gain interest. After seeing the PowerPoint, students began signing up for the club.”

Since the club’s creation this year, members have been working hard on completing multiple projects that benefit the planet. The first project was a coin drive for animals affected by Australian bush fires.

The goal of the club was to raise $250 and it has more than doubled that goal, raising over $500 that will be donated to help the animals. Other ideas the group has include adopting a highway and selling reusable grocery bags to raise money to plant trees around the school.

The club also plans to attend the upcoming school district board meeting to ask board members to look into an alternative material used for lunchroom trays. For club member and fifth-grade student Lily Hamilton, her focus is limiting materials that go into landfills.

“One thing that needs to be changed is limiting all of the plastic and Styrofoam that is put into our landfills,” said Hamilton. “I get very excited making a difference, because if we don’t do it, there will be no future.”

Everybody in the environmental club knows the importance of acting now to ensure that it is not too late in the future. Most of the kids in the club said that it was the video Mrs. Tooley showed to the classrooms that sparked their passion for the environment.

“The video really showed us about helping out and all of the pollution in the ocean that is affecting all of the animals,” said Mercy Hunley, fourth-grader and member of the club. “It is important that we save the environment, because there is a lot of pollution at the moment and it is not good at all.”

Helping protect the environment is something that everyone can do by making little changes. Even making small changes in one’s daily life can have a large impact on the planet. Along with making changes, the school also thinks it is important to introduce children to being environmentally friendly at a young age.

“Even making small changes like getting rid of Ziploc bags and replacing them with reusable silicone bags or even Tupperware can make a big difference,” said Jen Gontarak, art teacher at Tilton.