Students from Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory’s Environmental Club endured the grueling Florida sun on March 30 to beautify City Hall with a butterfly garden and wildlife habitat as part of the Hollywood City Hall Native Tree and Plant Garden project.
Thirteen students dug holes, weeded and planted trees along with members from the City of Hollywood Green Team and Tree Subcommittee, the Department of Public Works, Global Hollywood and other community volunteers.
“We are a school based on service,” said France Tortora, moderator for the Environmental Club. “That’s what we want to do at Chaminade-Madonna. We want to build a better community. We want to instill in our students that there are many ways to build a better world. These students are very interested in planting trees for more oxygen and reducing their footprints.”
The purpose of the Environmental Club is to create awareness within the school community about environmental issues, to develop school-wide initiatives to reduce waste and to recycle, and to volunteer with projects within the local community aimed at maintaining the environment. The club has also established “Mission Recycle,” a recycling program on the high school’s campus in which environmental club members set out recycling bins that city employees collect each Friday.
“The most satisfying thing about participating in the club I think would be knowing we are helping a greater good and being an important part of keeping our community a nice place to live and be in every day,” said senior Elizabeth Ionescu, who has participated in the club since her freshman year. “It was important to clean City Hall because as the prominent building in the community, it is important to set an example and keep the outside green and nature friendly.”
For senior Gabriel Baratto, the project gave him a chance to give back to his community and show that everyone can do something, no matter how small, to help save the environment, and for senior Jose Lavergne, even though he felt exhausted at the end of the day, he was excited to see how his hard work paid off.
“It was definitely hard work and hot, but we learned a lot about native plants to Florida,” he said. “I enjoyed it so much that I plan to volunteer with other environmental causes in college.”
The students also participated in another City of Hollywood beautifying project on April 12 near the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood on Harrison Street. In addition, Tortora said the club has participated in beach cleanups and many of her students have gone back to participate in these events on their own.
“I’m very proud of my students,” she said. “They really stepped up. It’s amazing the amount of work they’ve done.”
For more information about Chaminade-Madonna, visit www.cmlions.org.
