With GenZ’s growing concern and activism on environmentalism, Earth Day has become a highly popularized and important holiday these past few years. At Panther Creek High School, we have celebrated this significant celebration of our Earth through clubs at our school including Youth Climate Action Coalition and the Environmental Club.

Every year, Youth Climate Action Coalition creates Earth Week which is a 5-day challenge for PCHS students to participate in. Each day, a new challenge to do a sustainable task is completed by students for a chance to win a gift card to a local business, many of those businesses being in North Carolina’s Green Business Directory.

The advisor of the Youth Climate Action Coalition said that “Our goal is awareness of environmental issues… so we set up different activities and events; for example with Earth Week, this week is to encourage that activism.”

Another sustainable club at our school is the Environmental Club. This is one of our school’s most popular clubs among students and faculty since they completely run the recycling at Panther Creek. While Youth Climate Action Coalition focuses on environmental advocacy and promoting people to live sustainably, Environmental Club focuses more on the doing of recycling and other sustainable tasks. 

Kara Dorety, one of the Presidents of the Environmental Club, said, “Mainly, our goal is to make sure the environment around our school stays clean.” 

Dorety believes that starting to live sustainably can be very simple and can start with just recycling your bottle when you’re done, composting, and other small things. Ms. Patterso said that she believes these small things make a large difference and can be extremely simple.

Overall, Earth Day is a celebration of our Earth and raising awareness of environmentalism to keep her clean and healthy. Panther Creek clubs have done an incredible job in raising this awareness and keeping the Earth and Panther Creek clean!