Cherokee’s Environmental Action Club empowers students to make a difference

Cherokee High School’s Environmental Action Club is one of the many clubs CHS has to offer its students. The club provides students with several service hour opportunities through projects and volunteer opportunities as well as educate students on useful environmental topics.

The club meets every other Wednesday morning at 8 am in Mr. Gustin’s room 404 main campus. These meetings are generally announced in the morning announcements.

Here’s what students had to say about the club:

Harrison Russ, senior at CHS, provided some insight on what this club is like.

“The Environmental Action Club organizes and performs multiple cleanups for the school and the community. We have created bat boxes to support the local population. We are planning on creating a large pollination garden to beautify our campus. We are also restarting the recycling effort at Cherokee. We also have a couple Bob Ross paint alongs per year as a fundraiser. They are always super fun!” said Russ.

Harrison Russ, Senior

We asked students about their favorite aspects of the club:

“My favorite part about the club is how everyone involved in the club really has a passion to help better the environment, and it’s really superb about working together as a community not only school involved, but also again community involved. We did the bat boxes; we did the river testing; it’s a really positive group to be in,” said senior Campbell Tourcotte.

Campbell Toucotte, Senior

“My favorite part about it is the fact that as a community, Canton has really come together. We have a lot of small businesses coming and supporting our club and reaching out to us and I really enjoy the community we get as a club within the city of Canton,” continued Toucotte.

Keaton Toucotte, Senior

“My favorite thing about the club is all the fun activities we do and later in the semester we’re making bird houses and last semester we made bat boxes, that are meant to house bats, like that’s really cool,” said senior, Harrison Russ” said Toucotte.

Campbell Toucotte, Senior

“The impact that we’re making , a lot of people just think recycling is enough to do their part but we take it a step further and we are trying to get everyone involved that we can. art club helps us out, diversity club we work with many different clubs to make the biggest impact we can,” said Rockey.

Lexi Anne Rockey, Senior

Why did you decide to be a part of the club?

“I had Mr. Gustin for AP Environmental Science in 11th grade, and we made a really good connection. I had learned about the Environmental Action Club from my sister and her friends the year before, and it was something I wanted to be a part of as it was super successful, for a great cause, and I knew it was something I wanted to be able to do,” said Russ.

Harrison Russ, Senior

“For a field trip for Mr. Gustin’s class we went down to Etowah River and cleaned it up. I loved the activities we did with that: cleaning up our fire pit, our surrounding area, and our community, and so I decided to join Environmental Action Club to continue that impact in the school clean ups that we do,” said Rockey.

Lexi Anne Rockey, Senior

”For me, I learned about the club as I am currently a student of Mr. Gustin’s, and I also heard about the club by word of mouth through friends and other service groups like student government, and Alpha Gamma,” said Toucotte.

Campbell Toucotte, Senior

“As Campbell and Harrison said, I also have a pretty good connection with Mr. Gustin, so when he came to me, with the opportunity to be in the Environmental Action Club, obviously I took it and ran with it, because Gustin is a very interesting character to be around. He’s so passionate about this club. It just makes you want to be passionate about it, too,” said Toucotte.

Keaton Toucotte, Senior

What would you say to people thinking about joining the club?

“If I could say anything to someone on the fence about joining Environmental Action Club, is do it! You’re helping the environment and you’re doing it for such a great cause. It looks great on college transcripts and you get donuts [at meetings]” said Toucotte.

Keaton Toucotte, Senior

“I would say, if you’re on the fence just go ahead and do it its for the good of the environment. It makes you feel better, it’s a ton of fun, and everyone has a great time. I feel like it’s really fun,” said Russ.

Harrison Russ, Senior

“It’s an easy way to get involved and a good thing to do with your friends,” said Rockey.

Lexi Anne Rockey, Senior

Students have the wonderful opportunity to join a club that can change the environment around them as well as connect with friends at our school.